#she’s had trouble with two kids bullying her in the class that finally got resolved and now she does this

[rosereign]

I used to have reoccurring arguments in my head which were like unfulfilled thoughts that I wanted to say but didn’t with my family members, and they disappeared for like three years, but they’re back now and it’s annoying (I used to have a lot of fights with them about my ex in real life and then I’d imagine what I wanted to say back but never did). I just rehearse these lines in my head to no one but myself and it’s a losing battle every time (now it’s arguments about everything - imagined, not fulfilled and I may not be as good at managing my anger as I thought I was). My sister is going to help me find a good therapist. One, because I have a severe mental disorder and need one, and shouldn’t have been without one, and two because I plan on going into the mental health field and it just makes sense to be in therapy (my sister suggested I should be in therapy while going to school for mental health profession because I may be triggered by something).

#idk this is like venting #little pushed a little boy out of a chair today because she thought it was her chair and that’s bugging me #she’s had trouble with two kids bullying her in the class that finally got resolved and now she does this #she’s never been to daycare or around a lot of kids for a long time so I understand it #she’s still adapting #little baby big feelings #little baby big brain #lol #I have my first college algebra test on Wednesday and I sure hope I don’t fail it because it’s over nothing that was in the homework and on #things we only briefly touched on in class #we have a study guide for it though so hopefully it goes well #personal #venting #the teacher messaged me about what little did and I didn’t even ask if the little boy was okay because I didn’t know what to do

[fanmoose12]

troubled youth

Sometimes kids fight. And it’s up to their parents to resolve the conflict. 

"I'm sorry, dear," Hange whispered soothingly, looking down at the mouse. She patted it once and then took scalpel in her hands. "But it's for the sake of science..."

Before she could make the first incision, her phone started ringing. Hange cursed, taking it out. Who the hell could call her right now? Anyone who knew her, also knew that she was not to be disturbed during work hours. Hange glanced at the screen and cursed again. Just one name, but already she felt the beginnings of a migraine.

"Good day, Mr. Shadis," she greeted. "I'm very busy, so let's skip the pleasantries. What horrible deed did my son do this time?"

"It's a serious matter, Doctor Zoe," he answered in a grave tone. "Your son got into a fight."

"A fight?" Hange gasped. "Is he hurt?"

"Just a few scratches. But you must come to my office. I want to talk with you about boy's behavior. And no," he added. "We can't do it over the phone. The other boy's father will come too."

"Fine," and just like that, Hange was brought back to her high school years. Shadis was her teacher too and used to scold her all the time. She was young and dumb then, and used to admire him. A lot. Thankfully, those days were long gone, and now she could see that Keith Shadis she respected so much was pretty incompetent at his job. He couldn't even handle her son, for crying out loud.  "I'll come as soon as I can," she promised and hung up.

"Moblit!" she called, taking off the protective goggles.

"Yes?" his sandy blond head appeared in the doorway almost immediately. "Do you need something?"

"I need to go," Hange sighed, staring longingly at the mouse. "Can you finish the dissection for me?"

"Sure," Moblit nodded. "Is everything alright? You never leave early."

Hange rubbed her temples, showing Moblit a tired smile. "Jean got into a fight. Now his teacher wants to talk with me."

"A fight?" Moblit's eyes widened. "Did he get hurt?"

"Shadis says it's nothing serious, but I still need to go. Can you cover for me?"

"Of course! I'll take care of everything, don't worry. Just make sure that Jean is alright."

"Thank you, Moblit," passing him by, Hange briefly squeezed his shoulder. "Text me, if you need anything."

*** "Erwin?" Levi knocked at the door to his boss' office. "Do you have a moment?"

Erwin looked up from his computer screen to stare at Levi. "Sure," he shrugged. "Something happened?"

"Eren got into another fight," Levi scowled, plucking his lips in disgust. "And now his idiotic teacher wants to have a talk with me."

"A fight?" Erwin frowned. "Is Eren doing fine?"

"Nothing too serious, but I need to go now. Can I leave earlier?"

"No problem," Erwin assured. "But Levi?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't scare the teacher too much," he said with a grin. “And don’t terrorise the other kid!”

Levi rolled his eyes. "Fuck off," he flipped Erwin off and then left the office.

  ***

Hange threw the school's door open, storming inside. She hurried up the stairs, furious and enraged. She would show Shadis and the parent of that kid why no one could ever mess with her and especially her—

Son.

Stepping onto the needed floor, Hange's eyes instant locked onto a small boy. Jean was sitting on a bench beside the classroom, holding an ice pack to his face.

Looking at his miserable face, Hange's heart fell. She rushed to his side, falling to her knees in front of him.

"Jean?" she pressed him to her chest, rocking him slightly. "Jean, baby, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Jean pushed her away. "It doesn't hurt, really."

Good thing, Hange noted mentally. If Jean was acting embarrassed of her affection, then he wasn't that badly hurt.

"Still," she insisted. "Let me see."

Carefully and gently, she took away the ice pack. Jean's cheek was swollen and slightly blue, but nothing serious.

"Does it look too ugly?" Jean whispered.

"Not at all," Hange smiled encouragingly. "You look like a real badass right now."

Jean grinned widely and Hange chuckled, ruffling his hair.

"Why the hell are you wearing a lab coat?" spoke a low, monotone voice.

Instinctively, Hange looked down at herself. And then shrieked, jumping back from Jean.

"Oh, god, I probably forgot to take it off when I was leaving the lab! Jean, honey, wait a second, you know I work with dangerous chemicals!"

Hange hastily shrugged off her jacket and then the lab coat, throwing it out in the nearest trash can.

"There!" she breathed out a sigh of relief, plopping down to sit next to Jean. "The crisis has been averted!"

"Will the kid be alright?" the man asked. Hange finally turned to look at him, the man was sitting on the other side of the hallway, next to another boy Jean's age. Hange squinted, getting a better look at the pair. The man was short, but well-build, his face could even be called handsome, if he wasn't scowling so much. Hange then shifted her gaze to a boy—and squealed in delight.

"Eren!" she approached the kid, clasping him on a shoulder. "So you're another troublemaker, huh?"

“I guess,” he shrugged. “I’m sorry for—” he awkwardly pointed at Jean. “You know.”

“It’s fine,” Hange waved him off. “I can see that Jean has left his mark, too,” she gestured at Eren’s red cheek.

“It isn’t a laughing matter, four-eyes,” Eren’s father glowered, glaring at her. “Your son punched mine.”

“Dad—” Eren whispered urgently, tugging at his sleeve. “Don’t.”

“They’re children,” Hange waved him off with a careless smile. “They don’t know better yet. A little fight is nothing.”

“Maybe, it is nothing,” he agreed, although his gaze remained cold. “For the reckless parents like you.”

“Reckless?!” Hange’s eye widened. “Just what are you implying—”

She was interrupted by the sound of the opened door.

“Doctor Zoe! Mr. Ackerman!” Shadis called. “Please, come to my office. Your children can wait outside.”

Hange sent a seething glare at Mr. Ackerman, and then returned to Jean, crouching down to pull him into another hug.

“It won’t take too long, okay?” she smiled softly at him. “And then I’ll treat you to an ice-cream, deal?”

“Deal!” Jean nodded, leaning in to peck her on the cheek. “Good luck.”

“Your teacher doesn’t scare me,” Hange chuckled. Her eyes went dark, as she saw that Eren’s father was already inside. “And neither does this shorty.”

  ***

When Hange sat down on the chair next to the annoying midget, she suddenly felt like she wasn't a grown-up and a parent. Instead she felt like a child, who was going to be scolded by a strict teacher.

"I'm sure you two know why I asked you to come here," Shadis put his hands on a table and looked at them with a serious face.

"Of course," the shorty answered. "We're here because her child," he pointed at Hange. "Doesn't know how to talk with his peers."

"My child doesn't know how to talk? It's your son, who punched mine!"

Eren was a nice kid, really, and Hange felt bad for putting the blame on him. After all, it wasn't his fault that his father was such a jerk, who got on her nerves so easily.

"We don't know if it was Eren who threw the first punch," the shorty said, his voice was still stoically calm. It pissed Hange even more.

"Actually, we do know who started the fight," Shadis interfered. "It was Eren."

Hange grinned victoriously. She barely resisted from pumping her fist in the air. Take that, shorty.

"However," Shadis raised a finger. "It was Jean who started taunting Eren."

The smile instantly slipped from her face.

"The boy is clearly a bully," the shorty scoffed. "Eren just fought back, so I don't quite understand the point of me being here. Eren did nothing wrong, her son is at fault here."

"Oi!" Hange raised her voice, glaring daggers at him. "My son is not a bully!" Sure, maybe, Jean was a bit too straightforward and outspoken sometimes. But he wasn't a bully! "It's your son who's got problems. He was the one who hit Jean! Even if Jean was making fun of him, why couldn't he resolve this with words?"

"Maybe," the shorty hissed, all of his careful composure gone. "Maybe, your son doesn't understand words. Just like you."

"And maybe your son is prone to violence!" Hange argued back. "Just like you!

"My son—"

"Enough!" Shadis slapped his hand onto the table. Hange was suddenly brought back to the time, when he used to chide her for smoking under the bleachers.

"I won't tolerate your petty squabbles in this room. For crying out loud," he rubbed tiredly at his face. "You're just as bad as your children. I don't care who was in the right, and who was in the wrong. I brought you here for another reason. It's not the first time your sons got into an argument. They're fighting constantly, sometimes during classes, and I cannot let it continue."

"Mr. Shadis?" Hange spoke quietly, feeling that she knew where this was going. "Just what are you trying to say?"

Shadis sighed. "I don't care what you do. Have a talk with them, explain why fighting is wrong, doesn't matter to me. But if I catch them arguing again, I'd have to expel them both."

"Mr. Shadis!" Hange rose from her seat. "You can't do that!"

"And I don't want to," he said sincerely. "But I have no choice. The rest is up to you. You may go now."

Walking out of the classroom, Hange ruffled her hair in frustration. Fuck, she couldn't do it right now. She was so busy with her work, she had no time to look for a new school. And Jean liked it so much here, he would be heartbroken to leave his friends behind. She should find a way to prevent this.

"Hey, four-eyes," the shorty called once they were back in the hallway.

"It's Hange," she corrected absentmindedly, trying to think of a way to tell Jean that they might need to start looking for a new school.

"I'm Levi," that got Hange's attention. She turned to look at him, curious as to what he wanted from her now. Was he going to criticize her parenting skills once again? Hange knew she wasn't the perfect parent, she worked too much and she was too soft on Jean, but she did what she could to make a good man out of him. And she wouldn’t let some stupid midget batter her for it.

"Listen, Hange," Levi started, somewhat reluctantly. "I think we've started off on the wrong foot."

Hange stared at him with wide eyes. Was he trying to apologize? She almost opened her mouth to tease him, but then changed her mind. Maybe, shorty was right. It was enough that their kids were fighting. They should act like adults.

"I shouldn't have—" he paused, clearing his throat. "I shouldn't have said all these things about you and your son. I shouldn't have called him a bully."

"I agree," Hange nodded, watching him warily. "And I shouldn't have talked about Eren so badly. He's a nice kid."

"He is," Levi agreed. "But you're right, he is a bit violent. I— I'm working on it."

"And Jean likes to make fun out of people," Hange hanged her head. "I'm also working on it."

"Maybe, we should work on it together?" Levi offered.

"Huh?" Hange frowned. "I don't quite understand."

"Well, we could," Levi turned his gaze away, deliberately avoiding her eyes. "We could get a coffee or something. Buy kids some ice-cream, take them to the park."

"Oh."

"I don't think it'd be that easy to make Eren understand that punching people is bad, he's not that good at controlling his emotions, and I can't afford to find another school right now, so," Levi adjusted his tie and then looked up at Hange, his expression open and earnest. For some reason, Hange found his nervousness endearing. Maybe, he wasn't that much of an asshole after all. "Maybe, we can make them become friends?"

"Let's try," Hange agreed, smiling at him. 

*** "It looks like they're starting to get along," Hange noted. She and Levi were sitting on a bench in the park, watching the kids chase each other around the playground.

"It's the ice-cream," Levi said. "The sugar makes them friendlier."          

“Huh,” Hange sat back on a bench, straightening her long legs. "I should invest in more candies then."

"Thank you," Levi blurted out. "F-for taking me up on my offer. I know I was an asshole to you—"

"Levi," Hange softly patted his arm. "You've apologized already. I wasn't on my best behavior either."

"Still," Levi pressed. "I— we've changed three schools already and I don't know if I can find another one right now. Eren is a good kid. He really is," he repeated, clenching his jaw. "But— like you've said. He's got some anger management issues."

"He's just a kid," Hange comforted him. "He'll grow out of it, don't worry."

"You think he will?"

"Well, I did."

Levi raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Are you saying that—"

"I've been just like Eren before," she confirmed. "Too quick to anger and not knowing how to let it out. All teachers hated me," Hange chuckled. "The only one who could calm me down was Shadis."

"Shadis?" Levi's eyebrows went higher, well above his hairline. "That bald, constipated looking idiot, who teaches my son?"

"He was my teacher in high school. I guess he switched to elementary school since then. But he was quite fierce back in his days," Hange grinned. "had hair too!"

"Four-eyes, don't tell me..."

"I was young," she shrugged. "Easily impressed too."

Levi shook his head. "I can't believe you had a crush on Shadis."

Hange's eyes widened, as she saw a small smile on Levi's lips. Like that, he looked even more handsome. She quickly turned away, flustered.

"Getting back to Eren's problem," Hange kept her gaze fixated on Eren and Jean, who were climbing up the slide. "If you want, I can talk to him, give him some advice how to deal with his frustration or something."

"Thank you," Levi said softly, and, for some reason, Hange's pulse quickened. Just what was going on with her? "And, since you're such a busy person that you don't have the time to even take off your lab coat—"

"I was in a hurry!" Hange exclaimed with offended expression. Seeing a smirk on Levi's face, however, she couldn’t help but grin back at him.

"Well, if you ever need help, someone to look after Jean or something, you can always give me a call."

“Oh.” Hange’s treacherous heart skipped another beat. “It means a lot, thank you. But wouldn’t your—” she glanced down, looking at Levi’s left hand. There was nothing - not a spouse then. “Wouldn’t your partner mind?”

“My partner?” Levi frowned. “What are you talking about? Eren and I live alone.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s fine,” Levi sighed. “Eren’s adopted, I’ve been raising him on my own all this time, so stop fretting, you didn’t bring up bad memories or some shit.”

“Oh,” Hange wiped her forehead, relieved.

“And what about Jean’s—“ Levi made a vague gesture and paused, not knowing how to continue. “Does he have—”

“He only has me,” she smiled. “His father, um, let’s just say that he’s out of picture.”

“Oh good,” Levi breathed. A second later, he caught himself and stared at Hange with wide eyes. “I-I didn’t mean it like that! I was just—” he spurted, tripping over his words. Hange watched him with amused expression.

“I get it,” she chuckled. “Believe me, I’m glad about it too.”

“Raising the kid on your own, though…” Levi mused. “It gets hard sometimes, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Hange agreed. “But I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.”

“I know the feeling,” he murmured. “Sometimes I get so frustrated, so exhausted, but one smile from Eren, and I know that it’s all worth it.”

“Aww,” Hange punched his arm, grinning widely. “You’re secretly a softie!”

“Shut up,” Levi scowled. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she raised her hands, placating him. “But today’s been nice. I don’t have any friends with kids, so it’s cool to talk to someone, who understands.”

“Are you saying we’re friends, four-eyes?”

“Well,” Hange tilted her head, smiling softly at Levi. “Our children are getting along already,” she pointed at Eren, who was pushing Jean on a swing. “Why shouldn’t we be friends too?”

“Huh,” Levi shifted his gaze, staring at the two boys fondly. “Your idea… doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Yay!” Hange pulled him for a quick hug. Surprisingly, Levi didn’t even protest.

  ***

"So," Hange asked after she and Jean had settled on a coach in front of TV for the evening episode of Doctor Who. "Did you like hanging out with Eren?"

"It was fine. When Eren's not screaming like an idiot, he's not so bad," Jean said with a rueful grin. A second later, though, his expression changed. He looked at Hange with unusual seriousness, nervously picking at his sleeve. "Mr. Shadis wants to expel me, right? For always getting into trouble?"

"Honey," Hange wrapped her hands around him. "No one will expel you."

"Then why did you come to school today? Why did you bring me out to play with Eren?"

Damn his perception, Hange thought bitterly. She desperately tried to come up with a sound explanation.

"I came to school because I was worried that you were hurt," well, that part was true. "And we visited park with Eren and his dad, because I wanted to get to know him better."

"Eugh," Jean made a face. "You like him?"

"You don't?"

"He's weird. And his face is scary."

"It's just a facade," Hange grinned, patting Jean's hair. "He's actually very kind."

"Eren said the same thing," Jean reluctantly agreed. "I guess I'll see it for myself soon. Since you want to spend more time with him."

"I don't—" Hange tried to defend herself, but then she noticed a smirk on Jean's face. He saw right through her. She shook her head. "Let's just watch TV."

  ***

"Hey," Jean called when the final credits started to play. "If you start dating Eren's father, does it mean that I'll become Eren’s brother?"

"Jean!" Hange chided sternly, mustering all of her seriousness. She couldn't let her son see just how embarrassed his words made her feel. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not going to date Eren's father."

"Ah," Jean yawned. "So you're saying I still have some time to become friends with Eren. That's good."

Hange stared at him helplessly, feeling a smile tug at her lips. It was hard to deal with Jean sometimes. She still loved him more than anything.

  ***

"Did you like playing with Jean today?" Levi inquired, while he was tucking Eren in. "Was he—"

"He was okay. Not as much of a jerk as he usually is. By the way," Eren's lips curved into a smile and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. Levi sighed ever so slightly, this expression couldn't mean anything good. "Did you like talking with Hange?"

"It was okay," he repeated his son's words, trying to keep a straight face. Truth be told, Hange was more than just okay. Levi couldn't remember the last time he had so much fun.

"Hange is awesome!" Eren exclaimed. "Remember the science fair? She was the one who taught us how to make slime!"

Levi closed his eyes, feeling a shiver run down his spine, as he remembered that horrific thing. So that's who was to blame. He needed to come up with a way to make four-eyes pay for this.

"Hange is alright, now go to sleep, Eren."

"A-ah," Eren stubbornly shook his head. "Hange isn't just alright! I saw you smile today!" he exclaimed, pointing at Levi's lips.

"You're wrong," Levi protested instantly.

"Nope. I saw it clear as day. I turned to look at you, but you weren't looking back. You were looking at Hange," Eren teased. "And there was a smile on your face."

"It was a face spasm."

"Don't deny it, dad," Eren's bright eyes bored into him. "You like Hange. I like Hange too," he mumbled sleepily, his eyes slowly closing. "If you like her so much, I'm even ready to tolerate Jean."

"Go to sleep," Levi whispered softly. He waited for Eren to close his eyes and then leaned in, kissing him on a forehead.

Maybe, his son was right. Raising a kid was hard as hell. Maybe, he should find someone to share that burden with.

#that is the most self-indulgent fic i've ever written! #in my defense hange and levi as parents are cute af #levihan #levi x hanji #levi ackerman #hange zoe #eren yeager #jean kirstein #snk #snk levihan #rivahan

[pl-panda]

The vines that bind us - Chapter 8

Chapter 1 || Previous || Next

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“I trust you to act responsibly. And as a Guardian, you probably should start learning magic anyway.”

“Let’s get started then. Please tell me I can curse Lie-la!”

“Mari!”

“Just kidding, alright?” She smiled innocently and Tikki shook her head. 

-------------

Somewhere into the evening, Chloe called her to inform her that she was on her way back and she shouldn’t worry. When the blonde entered the room… it was a mess, using the word loosely. The walls were in all colors of the rainbow sans their original one. The room seemed to be double its size and Chloe was pretty sure her bed just got a fourth dimension added to it. There was also that the plants seemed to have taken over one corner and created their own kingdom. She could even see them raising a flag with Marigold Design and creations logo on it. 

“Figures! I leave you for one afternoon…!” Chloe said with disdain while trying to step over what looked almost like a black hole. 

“Chlo? Is that you?” Mari’s voice came from two and a half directions at the same time. The blonde had no idea how was it even possible.

“Isley! Get your pretty ass here so I can properly scold you!”  

“Um… Kinda tied at the moment,” came an answer.

“I don’t want to hear it. I had a long day of scheming and I need my beauty sleep.” Chloe complained. “Get me my bed fixed at least.”

“Oh fine! Tikki! Spots on!” There was a pink light from two separate directions and suddenly Ladybug jumped out of the small hole in the ground. “Miraculous Ladybug!” 

After the wave of shining bugs settled and the room was back to normal Mari detransformed and smiled apologetically at Chloe. “Sorry. Got carried away with the new book.”

“Picasso’s guide to architecture and interior design?” Chloe deadpanned. 

“Nope,” The bluenette smiled and pulled a rather hefty tome from her bed to show it to her friend. “Someone dropped it inside our room when we were out. Tikki deemed it safe and taught me the basics.” 

“I think you will need remedial lessons, given how our room looked. What exactly was the purpose of making my bed four-dimensional?”

“I might have tried to expand the room a bit, but I miscalculated a tiny bit. There is a surprising amount of math in magic.”

“Whatever. I would tell you how my date went, but I’m utterly exhausted now.” Chloe teased her friend. She expected the girl to beg her for the details. Instead, Mari pointed her arm at the bed.

“Pea and feather go along. Make this bed out of stone.” Her iridescent green and blue eyes flashed for a moment… and nothing happened. Chloe smiled triumphantly and tried to jump onto her bed, only to hit the cover hard. While on the outside, the bed looked like nothing changed, in reality, it was hard as the floor. Funnily enough, she could easily slip under the cover, but it still felt like lying on the floor with sheets of paper sewn together as a blanket. 

“You’re mean!” She cried. “I’m now commandeering your bed.” Before Mari even understood what Chloe meant, the girl jumped under her covers and snuggled on one side. There was still enough space for Mari to join if she was brave enough. 

“Ugh! That’s my bed!” 

“Exactly. You can take mine if you like it enough to modify it.”

“Tikki!” Mari cried, hoping that at least the Kwami would support her.

“Nope. You’re the one that made the bed so now you must sleep in it.”

“Um…” Mari tried to look in the book for a counterspell, but in the end, she just pointed her hand on the bed. “Princes found her prince at last. Take the curse and…” she tried to quickly find some rhyme. “break the glass? Ups…”

The window suddenly exploded, but the bed glowed, and after checking it was okay she picked Chloe to move her over. Except it totally didn’t work and the blonde instead pulled her into the comfortable bed. The tired Mari was too exhausted, both emotionally and physically, to care. She just cuddled closer to her adopted sister for some comfort. And heat since there was now a hole instead of the window and it was February.

----------------

The next morning Mari and Chloe woke up in a similar mess to the day before. And once again they were clothed.

“Ugh… I should probably calm down on magic.” Mari stretched herself a bit to get ready. She quickly changed into the fresh version of her yesterday’s outfit and helped Chloe gather herself a new ‘something’ for the day’s work. Apparently, for the next step of her scheme, she needed to look like a perfect Parisian princess. Something about Media attention. Mari was too busy with her tablet to care. 

She received a mail at 6 am that there was a slight change in the time of the press conference so she needed to forward it to the conference center before she even got to work. While eating breakfast she checked over the summary reaction about the public statement and emotions that accompanied the fallout. Predictably, the pictures served as a nice distraction, but also rallied the citizens behind the company. They treated it as someone making fun of the suffering company and flamed the Lila girl, even though the company said that she was also a victim. Well, there was a footnote about it. 

“You know you don’t need to put so much work into it?” Chloe asked while eating her croissant.

“I do. But if I can’t manage it now, how am I supposed to one day make MDC as big of a brand as Gabriel?”

“By not working yourself into a coffin?”

“Well… Wait a moment.” Mari was interrupted when her phone ringed. She quickly picked the call and her smile was replaced with a frown. “I understand. I will be there soon. Please keep an eye on him and tell the security not to let any more paparazzi.” she hanged up.

“Trouble?” Chloe asked with a grin.

“I’m afraid to ask…” 

“Damian is doing an errand for me. He is such a good sidekick.” The blonde smiled. Mari did not answer but urged her best friend to move on faster.

Since they stayed in their room for breakfast, neither girl wanting to deal with their moronic class longer than needed, they got down just in time… to see the bus leaving them in front of the hotel.

“Are you kidding me?” Chloe raised her hand. “We are in Gotham. Does that… that… Has she got any idea how dangerous is it?!”

“Said the girl that taunted the Riddler.” Mari deadpanned.

“He wouldn’t hurt me.” The blonde answered confidently.

“Anyway… we could call a taxi.” Chloe sneered at the idea, so Mari offered something else. “I could also test that portal spell…” 

“Taxi!” The girl shouted. Mari just shook her head and pulled the mobile phone. After less than five minutes Chas Chandler rolled next to them in his cab.

“I was in the neighborhood.” He smiled.

“Nice seeing you sir.” Mari greeted him before pushing Chloe in the back seat and joining her.

“To the Wayne tower, please. I would appreciate it if you could get us there fast. I need to get my boss to do his work.” She hoped they would arrive before the class to see their faces.

Sadly, the cab got stuck in the traffic and it took them over an hour to arrive. When Mari entered the lobby, she was angry enough to turn into a ‘stern assistant’ mode. Not a nice place to be if you are on her way. She stormed past the security while flashing her badge. They didn’t dare to try to stop her. 

“Get McKinsley to HR. And by the time I arrive I want Lila Rossi and Alya Cessaire to be sitting there!” The second one was directed to the receptionist, who nodded. So far everyone loved Mari, even in her bad mood. It didn’t stop them from being terrified. 

Both she and Chloe got into the elevator. When the doors closed, the blonde grinned. 

“I love it when you finally show your Gothamite side.” 

She got no response from the angry Mari, but through the ride, her smirk did not disappear through the ride. Once they separated, the bluenette continued alone. Angry did not give her emotions justice. She was furious.

Once she finally got on the floor, she stormed through the corridors right to the head of the department’s office. Luckily for everyone, Lila and Alya were already there.

“Who do you think…” Alya started only to be silenced by a death stare from Mari. For the first time in her life, she realized that the bluenette was someone not to be trifled with. 

“Apparently, since this morning I’m your superior.” Mari deadpanned. “Funny thing. I would probably only learn about this from your bragging later on if you didn’t decide, in all your stupidity, to write yourself reference in my name.” It was clear that she did not find it funny. 

“Puh-lease. You bullied Lila since she came. I thought that it was only fair that you’ve repaid her somehow.” Alya babbled, already forgetting her earlier fear.

“So you take full responsibility for forging both your resume?” Mari asked with a raised eyebrow, wanting to have it said out loud for the record. Especially since Madame McKinsley was standing in the entrance.

“Of course. It was totally unfair that such a bully got all the privileges while hard-working Lila had nothing.”

The Head of the Human Resources department sent Mari a tired look that seemed to mean ‘is she for real?’ She was a woman in her thirties with neatly cut black hair and skin in the color of dark chocolate by the name Mrs. Alicia Lynch

“Oh… In that case, you’re disciplinarily fired.”

“What?!” Alya screamed.

“And I will make sure this incident finds itself into your acts,” Alicia said with a frown. 

“You can’t…!” Alya was once more cut off, this time by madame McKinsley.

“They can. And you’re lucky that we are not pressing charges for attempted sabotage.” 

“The security will show you out. The teacher and your guardians will be informed. Since the hotel is paid by Wayne Enterprise for the members of the interns’ program, you will need to find alternative accommodations or simply return to Paris. I’ll leave this to the teacher and parents to resolve.”

“But… But…” Alya wanted to argue. All blood left her face and she seemed close to passing out. A man in a suit, carrying the security badge helped her out of the chair and led her outside.

“Now about you.” Mari turned her gaze toward Lila, who so far was busy checking on her nails.

“Oh! This is ridiculous! I had nothing to do with it. I’m a victim too!”

Marigold turned to McKinsley, who looked dejected.

“We can’t fire her. She was hired for the six months period.”

“Mutual agreement?” Mari asked. She’s been researching ways to dissolve her contract faster. Sadly, she already knew the answer.

“Two months waiting period. Standard to ensure she doesn’t use any of her knowledge against us.” For Mari, it was a year when she couldn’t work for any other company. Luckily, running her own business was still on the table, as long as she stuck to restrictions.

A different idea formed in Blunette’s head. She smirked slightly. “Well, Miss Rossi, looks like you’re in luck. Welcome to Wayne Enterprises. I hope you didn’t have any great ideas.”

Lila gulped. “Was that a threat?”

“No. If I threatened you, you would know. You and your little attack dog forgot that this is not Paris. This is Gotham. Here, we play by my rules.” With that she spun around and left, typing on her tablet. Just before the doors closed, she tossed another sentence that drove the nail deeper. “And this time, there is no minion to do it for you.”

----------------

Marigold didn’t calm down before reaching the top floor. Her emotions subsided a bit, but she was still on edge. 

“Ugh! How dare those stupid witches to try to use my name to sign their references! And that idiot who somehow believed them. He will definitely not get any bonus this month. Or next. At least they had enough common sense to call me. Except after the fact!” She was pacing in front of her desk. 

Tikki peaked from the inner pocket of her jacket. “At least you could do something about it!” She cheered.

“True. I got rid of one trouble. Without her, I will have a chance for some peace…” She barely finished the sentence when there was a crash in the room next door. Immediately, she rushed inside to check. Turns out her boss for some reason decided to move the desk. He ended up knocking the computer over. 

“Ehm.” She faux-coughed to get his attention.

“Oh! Um… I was just…” Tim tried to find some excuse.

“Trying to open the secret stash of coffee?”

“How do you…” he started to ask flabbergasted, but she interrupted him once more.

“I studied the schematics. And Sarah left me a note about it.” A smirk ghosted her stern face.

“Damn! Now I will need another hiding place.” Tim gathered himself from the ground. “Wait! You moved the desk by yourself?”

“Do I look that strong to you?” She asked, her face unmoving. Just because she came to hate liars didn’t mean she didn’t know how to bend the truth a little. And technically, she just avoided answering altogether.

“Whatever. You must’ve ordered the repair crew to move it then. I want my coffee.” He said pouting.

“Sir. I’m supposed to help you manage your time better. I am not simply your secretary.” Marigold informed him firmly. She checked with both Chloe and Nathalie what her responsibilities included.

“But you made that divine brew on Monday!”

“That was a gift for my first day of work.” Plus I had no idea what I was doing.

“But…”

“Enough buts for today. You have a meeting with Mr. Fox about the Friday presentation in half-an-hour. Did you familiarize yourself with the content of the email he sent you?”

“Ah! Of course, I did. I totally didn’t spend my night…”

“Then I would appreciate it if you spent the next half-an-hour on doing so.”

“B…” He didn’t even finish when her glare stopped him. She could pull Batstare better than the original.

“If you act like a proper CEO, I might think about making you some of my ‘divine brew’ as a reward.” She suggested and closed the door, leaving him to his own device. She had several calls to make and set other meetings

---------

It was two hours later when angry Caline Bustier demanded a meeting with her. Mari didn’t even think before redirecting her to HR. The teacher was supposed to be the chaperone of the group and look after them after work. She was also directly responsible for all of their actions. She was very displeased that now she had to take care of Alya for eight hours a day that used to be free time for her. So of course, she blamed everything on Marinette. This time, it backfired. She had to quickly give up any accusations before she ended up in an even worse situation. 

Luckily, after that little incident, the day passed without any more surprises. She had half-a-mind to search the town for her mother in the evening. Since she was hired, she was now technically independent of the class. Chloe had a slip from her father that allowed her to basically ignore the teacher. The blonde convinced Mari that mindless wandering the city would only get her robbed. Or at least involved in attempted robbery since she could easily kick ass if she only wanted. Instead, Mari spent the afternoon shopping for materials and working on a new outfit for uncle Jagged that he ordered for his visit to Gotham in a month or so.

She also made a quick call to Paris to discuss things with her hire. The girl informed her that she would happily run the store a little longer. Mari promised to even consider to hire her permanently if she did well. 

Chloe had another date scheming meeting with Damian Wayne. At this point, it was unclear what their relationship was. Good thing: neither did the tabloids. Mari promised to the blonde to hold back on the search for her mom until Friday afternoon. She also promised to take both Adrien and Chloe with her when she visited a contact in the local club. They would celebrate her getting a job and the first week over.

All would be great. If she didn’t spot a vigilante on the rooftop next to her (now fixed) window. Even then, it was Gotham. The bats were rather common at this point. It wasn’t like when she left and they were only starting. Batman was still mostly a myth back then, even after six years of work. Except this vigilante was clearly staking her room specifically. he even had binoculars that she was sure had night vision in them. 

She opened the window and picked a pencil. With deadly precision she tossed it. The wooden tool sailed through the air until it hit the binoculars and broke one side of them. She huffed and closed the window before pulling the curtains closed. How rude.

---------

NEXT

#Mother!Ivy #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #batman #dc #MLB #mlb x dc #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #BAMF Marinette #redeemed!chloe #Good!Adrien Agreste #maribat au

[nah-she-didnt]

Hunted

Read on AO3! 

I’m sure in the morning I’ll regret not proofreading this enough. Oh well!

--

“I’m bored,” Sirius declared. He sat with his back on the Gryffindor common room’s carpeted floor, legs bent at ninety degrees to rest on the couch in front of him. He and James had been attempting to finish their Transfiguration homework for approximately 18 minutes. 

James grinned, his eyes trained on his paper. “If you don’t get this done McGonagall’s going to have your arse for breakfast.” 

“Kinky.” 

“Idiot.” 

Sirius sighed and stuck his legs straight up in the air. “Nah she wouldn’t, Minnie loves me. Told me so herself.” 

“Come off it,” scoffed James, still valiantly trying to finish his sentence. 

“She did! She said, ‘Black, you’re a god among men, my greatest pride and joy, your Transfiguration skills are the stuff of legends,’ then she kissed me on the forehead, turned into a Hippogriff, and flew off into the sunset.” He paused. “On second thought, it’s possible it was all a dream.” 

“No kidding,” James muttered, throwing down his quill and rubbing his eyes. At this rate there was no way he was going to finish his homework before nine. He only had 30 minutes before he, Sirius, and Peter had to leave the dormitory to prepare for midnight with Moony. 

As James contemplated his homework crisis, Mary McDonald slid into the seat on the couch next to Sirius’ legs. She sighed dramatically as she dropped her school bag down next to her, then threw her head into her hands. “Gentlemen,” she said, her voice muffled by her palms, “it’s been a horrendously long day.” 

“Do tell?” said Sirius, his interest piqued. Listening to Mary complain about her day was less boring than watching James do homework. 

Mary looked up. “Have you ever wanted to trap all the seventh year Slytherin boys in a cage, then drop that cage in the middle of the black lake?” 

Sirius grinned. “Once or twice.” 

“Well, after today, I reckon Lily and I have had enough of them for a lifetime.” 

James’ head snapped up from his desk. He would have to finish his homework tomorrow.

“What happened?” he demanded. 

Mary looked surprised at his outburst. “Blimey, calm down. We were walking to Charms today and got cornered by Mulciber. Nothing major,” Mary said sharply, noticing that James had opened his mouth to interrupt her, “at first it was just the the usual ‘moodblood’ this and ‘mudblood that,’ nothing we haven’t heard before. But he wouldn’t let us past him, right? Held us up for a couple minutes until finally we got our wands out. He was outnumbered and he knew it, but he still wanted to goad us, so he started saying shit about Lily’s house.” 

James felt his blood run cold. “What do you mean, what about her house?” 

“What it looked like, the color of the front door, what her father looked like when he came home from work,” Mary shuddered. 

“We’ll get him.” Sirius said darkly, “I’m going to kill him.” 

“Easy, Black,” Mary said firmly, “he hasn’t got anything coming to him that I can’t deliver.” 

“What happened then?” interrupted James, whose hands had curled into fists. 

Mary shrugged. “We blasted him out of the way and made it to Charms two minutes late. Flitwick told me I couldn’t hand in my essay because ‘if it isn’t on time, what good is it at all?’ Wanker. Now my whole average is down because Mulciber decided to be an arsehole.” 

“What happened to Lily?” James tried not to sound annoyed as he spoke. He didn’t care much about her Charms average. 

“Haven’t seen her since, she wasn’t at dinner. She said she wasn’t bothered by what Mulciber said, that he wasn’t a threat. But I know she was lying,” Mary sighed, ‘she’s been worried this would happen for months. Mulciber and his little friends know she grew up near Snivellus, and they know where he lives. It was only a matter of time.” 

James jumped to his feet. “Sirius, tell the others I’m going to be late tonight.” 

“Uh-” Sirius stumbled, choosing his words carefully in front of Mary, “I dunno, mate. Bit of a tight schedule tonight, yeah? There isn’t a ton of room for error.”

“I’ll be there, just go without me,” James promised, and jogged toward the portrait hole. 

He pulled the map out of his pocket as he clambered into the corridor. He knew that she often tutored younger students after dinner, so when he unlocked the map he scanned every classroom he could find, but her name did not appear.  

James considered every conversation he could remember having with Lily. She loved the cozy atmosphere of the greenhouses, the peacefulness of the library, and hated the Astronomy Tower due to her fear of heights. She often visited the dungeons to tend to overnight potions for their NEWT class, but James remembered her encounter with Mulciber and reckoned she’d be keeping her distance from anywhere near the Slytherin common room. Finally, he found her. 

Lily’s dot sat motionless along the shore of the black lake. 

James frowned. He’d never known Lily to sneak out of the castle at night. Over the years he’d seen her miss a curfew or two, but as Head Girl she never went so far as to stray from the safety of the school. Still, it made sense. Lily loved the lake, loved to take of her shoes and socks and walk out into the shallows. James tried not to think about another time when Lily sat by the lake, when she called him an “arrogant, bullying toe-rag.” 

James pulled the invisibility cloak out of his other pocket and threw it over himself. He was half-way down the hall before he stopped in his tracks. What was he doing? Did Lily even want to be found? Clearly, she had taken care to put distance between herself and castle. That must mean she wanted to be alone. Even so, James didn’t like the idea of her alone on the grounds at night, especially when Mulciber and his cronies were getting more restless by the day. Lily’s spot on the shores of the lake was not far from the Whomping Willow. He could sit under his cloak just far enough away from Lily to give her privacy, but close enough that he could watch her back. 

He set off at a brisk walk, satisfied with his plan. He strolled down the hallway, through a tapestry into a secret passage, then down a flight of stairs. Nearing the main entrance he decided to check the map again to make no one would meet him between here and the Great Hall.

To his surprise, Lily’s dot had vanished. 

“Shit,” muttered James, feeling panic set in his stomach. Where had she gone? Had someone else found her first? 

No, there it was. Lily’s dot was back inside the castle, moving through the Great Hall and toward the- 

James stuffed the map in his pocket and darted down the corridor into the Great Hall. He bolted for the door to the dungeons and hurtled down, trying his best not to trip over the ancient stones that made up the staircase. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he slowed his pace, still aware that he was invisible. He hurried around a corner and under an archway into a silent corridor. It was nearly 9. The Slytherins should all be in bed by now. 

He spotted a figure at the end of the corridor. Lily’s silhouette was just visible against the torchlight. She leaned against the wall tapping her wand against her leg nervously. She was waiting. 

James pulled off the Invisibility Cloak. It wouldn’t work to sneak up on Lily and scare her half to death. He would have to try the reasonable approach. 

He walked purposefully down the hallway towards Lily. Sensing movement, Lily looked up, and frowned. “Out of bed, Potter? On a school night?” 

James raised an eyebrow. “I could say the same for you.” 

“Yeah, well,” Lily glanced darkly at the Slytherin common room door, “I’ve got unfinished business here.” 

“I heard,” James took a step between Lily and the door, and Lily faltered. 

“Don’t,” she breathed, holding out her hand to brace his arm, “Don’t try and stop me. He’ll sneak out tonight, I know it, he sends owls secretly at night. Sending information. He’s done it since fifth year. Sev told me. He’ll want to tell them all he got to me. But I won’t - won’t just sit by and watch it happen.” 

James nodded slowly. “What do you think you’re going to do tonight, Lily? Kill him?” 

She flinched. “Jesus, James,” she said, fear in her voice, “no, I’m not going to kill him, what’s the matter with you? He just needs to know that my Dad is off limits.” 

James put his hand over hers that still clutched his arm. “It’s not smart, waiting for him here. He could have backup in a second. You could get in trouble, get detention, suspended, kicked out. You’re not thinking this through.” 

Lily laughed coldly. “That’s a bit rich coming from you, don’t you think?” 

James clutched her hand tighter. Her eyes finally met his. “Lily,” he whispered as he stepped back, pulling her gently down the hall away from the Slytherin common room, “not tonight, alright? We’re going to protect your family, I promise, but this isn’t the way.” 

Her eyes widened further, but she nodded in agreement. She silently allowed James to guide her down the hallway. She turned when they reached the stairs, threw one last contemptuous look towards the dormitory, then turned to walk up the stairs. 

“It’s not my family, you know,” Lily spoke so softly James almost couldn’t hear her, “it’s just my Dad. Petunia lives in London so she can be near her atrocious fiancee.” 

James nodded, not looking at Lily. He knew that her mum had died a few years ago. “Sounds like family to me.”

The reached the top of the stairs and entered the Great Hall. Lily shrugged, sliding onto a bench. “I guess I mean it’s not my whole family, though really he’s the only one I’ve got left. And it’s not his fault, right? That I’m a witch? Not his fault that he’s being hunted just because by some freak accident his daughter was born magic.” Lily stopped abruptly, afraid that her resolve would break if she continued. 

James sank into the seat beside her. They sat in silence for a moment, Lily trying to regain control of her composure. James wasn’t sure what he could say. He couldn’t relate, really, to what she was going through. She was a muggleborn, he was pureblood, he’d never know what it was like to be any other way. 

But he did understand some things. 

James sat up a bit straighter and wrapped an arm around Lily’s shoulders. “Did I ever tell you that our house was attacked this summer?” 

Lily started. “What? What do you mean, attacked? By who?” 

James grimmaced. “Take a guess.” 

She stared at him. “What happened?”

James sighed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “My folks have been with Dumbledore for a long time. My Dad was big at the ministry for a while, until he started speaking out against Voldemort. He and mum made their fare share of enemies, and I guess we got a bit lazy with our protective enchantments. They blasted a hole in the side of our house. Must have thought they would get my parents’ room.” 

Or my room, he thought suddenly, but he pushed the thought away hurriedly. 

“Anyway, they missed, got the library instead. But we had to beef up security after that. We’re unplottable, for now, and we’ve got caterwauling charms all over the place. Caught Sirius sneaking out one night to see Remus,” James chuckled.

Lily leaned a little closer to him under his arm. “That’s awful,” she muttered, twisting her hands in her lap. 

“Yeah, it was,” replied James, resting his cheek against the top of her head. 

They sat like that for a few minutes, silent, breathing together, touching but not caressing. Clinging to one another. 

Suddenly, the giant clock above the hall chimed. It was 9. 

James swore. “Shit. Lily, I’m so sorry, I have to go.”

Lily looked crestfallen. “Really? Well, alright, if you have something better to do than talk me off ledges.” 

“Would it make you feel better if I told you it was for Remus?” 

Lily’s face broke into a small smile. “Yes, it would.” 

“Well, it is. Here,” He pulled the cloak from his back pocket, “take this, you’ll need it to get back to the dorm without running Filch, or anyone else.” 

“What-” Lily’s mouth fell open, “is this an invisibility cloak?”

“Er, yeah,” James said awkwardly, “it was my Dad’s.” 

“Jesus,” she breathed, rubbing the fabric between her thumb and forefinger, “you’re a mysterious man, Potter.” 

“Yes I’m a regular Unspeakable, now you’ve got to go. Just keep that cloak safe, will you?” 

“Yes sir,” she said with a mock salute. Then she threw the cloak over herself and, he presumed, left the hall on her way to bed. 

#nina writes #Jily #jily fic #hp fanfic #james potter #lily evans #sirius black #my poor sweet children #I am once again telling you all that i proof read this one (1) time before posting #I thrive on the chaos!!! #also I am lazy

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas: Alleycat

Also on AO3! 

TL;DR:  

The story of the Erasure villain: Alley Cat and his heroic kittens. Aizawa, a rather nomadic villain, accidentally acquires two teenagers and a four-year-old. It's not the most conventional family, but it'll do.

villain aizawa: hes incredibly brutal and efficient, kind of an antihero type. he shuts down some things the heroes dont see, patrols the sketchy areas, looks out for children

he kinda,,, accidentally adopted some children

shinsou and izuku were runaways from a terrible foster home that tracked down the 'villain' alleycat and basically said

"are we worth anything to anyone?" and aizawa sees these kids hurt by heroics and takes them under his wing

eri is a kid izuku stumbled upon while out with shinsou before they met aizawa, and izuku basically adopted her straight out, came back to shinsou like "hi we have a little sister now" they are like 12, eri is 4

so aizawa accidentally gets 2 teens and a lil kid and he finds out they lowkey wanna be villains like him bc they wanna help and heroes dont help people like them. aizawa's heart breaks bc he doesn't want these kids to have the life he's had, so he promises to train hitoshi and izuku only if they try for the hero course

they agree. a villain begins to train heroes to enter the very thing that hurt them, with hopes of changing it from the inside out

ok also: in this au whatever horrible thing happened to shirakumo,,,, didnt. and he's 1A's homeroom teacher. hes bright, bubbly and cheerful, with the same expulsion rate aizawa has

so, shirakumo's hero name is cloud nine, hizashi's is feedback, not present mic. they both think aizawa is dead, and separately have to deal with the villain 'alleycat' as his territory intersects w ua's zone

aizawa, as alleycat, is a lot gentler to shirakumo and hizashi, more polite when speaking to them, less brutal with his takedowns. hizashi notices, but says nothing

hitoshi and izuku, with their baby sister eri, end up living with aizawa, training to be heroes to improve them fucked up society that taught them they were worthless in the  first place

he takes them on parkour routes in the early morning, teaches them how to disarm people with knives, to use an opponents size against them.

izuku hones his ability to analyse, hitoshi learns how to push peoples buttons. there is no such thing as a fair fight for them. they break each others noses, chip a tooth or two, get black eyes. there are no hard feelings, they are together through everything

the 4 of them live pretty rough, only on what aizawa can get as a villain/working day shifts in a dodgy bar. aizawa pretends to be their dad for anything legal, says they had two different mothers. it works, somehow.

Some minor cosmetic changes:

Izuku, Hitoshi and Eri all dye their hair black. It started as them quietly wanting to look like their ‘dad’ for sentimental reasons, but they quickly worked out that it made the lie a lot easier for others to swallow.

They all take the surname Aizawa

Eri’s hair is cut into a messy bob – she loves getting Izuku to give her pigtails with the little sparkly hair ties Shouta stole for her. Izuku’s hair is shorter at the back and longer at the front, obscuring his eyes a bit. Hitoshi’s hair is shoulder length and growing, he ties it back in a low bun.

All three of the kids have scars. Eri’s are like canon but a less extreme because her quirk only just showed up. Izuku and Hitoshi have some from bullies, horrible foster parents and reckless sparing. Izuku has a few more little ones because he developed his not-dad’s love of cats and is unafraid of getting bitten – on top of his lack of self-preservation.

they go to aldera middle school, bakugo is still a little shit. to be honest, izuku hates it the most when bakugo burns his uniform - they cant afford to buy extra. there have been a few weeks hes just had to where shinsou's spare and roll the sleeves up

izuku and shinsou have a bit of a spat the afternoon of the sludge villain. it's nothing either of them remembers in a weeks time, but it means shinsou leaves school first, without izuku

bakugo corners him, notebook, allmight, etc

izuku has to ask

all might says no

izuku crumbles, such a dramatic shift from the calm but nice boy he'd been before. you can see the moment his heart breaks. all might feels terrible, but izuku has jumped down the fire escape before he can say anything.

to be honest, izuku is moments away from a full-fledged breakdown. He shoots shinsou a quick text about the villain, but pauses when he hears explosions. He knows the chances its Katsuki are tiny but he’s never been a lucky guy, so he runs towards them

basically the rest of the episode plays out like canon, izuku goes home and meets with his whole ass family panicking because he sent a vague text about a villain then was totally AWOL for 2 hours

hitoshi hugs him really tight while aizawa mumbles something about a tracking chip.

Izuku tells hitoshi about all might, but just tells aizawa vaguely that hes getting a quirk, no he isn’t in any danger, yes he’ll be safe, no he can’t tell you how.

Izuku and Hitoshi both pass the entrance exam with a mix of hero and villain points.

Izuku still doesn’t his whole bone breaky routine but he also manages to take out a few robots by himself before that. He ends up with the highest score.

Hitoshi takes out a few more robots but spends a fair bit of time pushing people out of the way of robots, yelling at people to be more careful about the others around them, and controlling people to get them out of the way of debris. He gets into the top 10.

Nezu is very very interested in the two ‘brothers’ with very different quirks that both did so well. He resolves to keep and eye on them.

Shirakumo is a riot as a teacher but boy is he stressful to be in a class with. The first insult out of Bakugo’s mouth and hes kicked him out of his class, telling him to try class B or get out of the school. (Blood King takes him. Bakugo is a little less horrible to izuku, at least where others can see)

Izukus having a quiet panic attack because Bakugo is going to kill him, and Hitoshi is caught between respecting the balls on their teacher and being pissed at the guy for putting izuku in a terrible position.

No quirk test, they do actually go see the opening ceremony. Hizashi and Shirakumo chat in sign while the principal’s speech drags on. Hitoshi and Izuku watch on, trying not to laugh when they start signing that they want to go to sleep.

Then they do the quirk test bc shirakumo’s a bastard. They end the day with Bakugo kicked out and Hagekure hanging onto her place by a thread. Izuku and Hitoshi come 4th and 5th respectively, despite not being able to use their quirks in the test. Shirakumo is interested.

Skipping to the interesting bits:

The USJ is just as terrible as canon, with the added fact that some of the thugs totally recognise izuku and hitoshi. Izuku works out how to use one for all at 1% during the attack. Hitoshi ends up with a scar on his eyebrow from a person with a claw quirk, Izuku gets a broken arm. Hitoshi sees all might in his skinny form for the first time and is suitably surprized

The sports festival goes a lot like canon in the first round, the second round features a team-up of just Hitoshi as the horse and Izuku as the rider bc they are so used to working with each other they felt it’d be more trouble to have extra team members. They arent exactly wrong and that round ends with them still in control of the 1’000’000 points band – along with a fair few teams just sitting on the sidelines with no idea how they got there.

Tournament round has izuku fighting Todoroki in the second round like canon, but in this universe, he wins (after helping him because whats izuku without a saviour complex). Hitoshi beats Tokoyami and Sero, but loses to Bakugo. The final round is Izuku vs Bakugo, they tie.

The stain arc is a riot. Izuku is interning w Gran, Hitoshi is with Nighteye who happens to be looking for ‘Alley Cat’. Hitoshi is so done with this.

Izuku finds Iida about to be attacked by stain and swoops in. Stain recognises him instantly

“Oh, you’re one of the cat’s kids, aren’t you? Let me deal with this fake hero and you can show me what your dad's taught you.”

Iida is confused – resolves to ask about it later

“You step away from him.”

“What?”

“I said. Step away from Iida. He’s – We’re going to be heroes. We’re both going to be heroes and I won’t let you hurt him!”

Stain pauses, then smiles.

“Lets see if the apple falls far from the tree, hm?” And he launches himself at Izuku

Izuku can dodge with the best of them, but he can’t get close enough to hit stain while protecting Iida. He manages to escape paralysis, but by the time Todoroki arrives stain has barely taken damage.

Todoroki isn’t the only person that responded to that warning. 1 city over, Hitoshi is franticly begging Nighteye to do something, because his brother is in danger. Nighteye is shocked at the fear in the previously apathetic child’s voice. He alerts heroes in the area, and makes his way over with a nervous Hitoshi in tow. On the other end of the city, where he’d been trying to keep an ear out for his kids, Aizawa gets the text and his heart drops. He begins running over.

Stain is taken out before any more help arrives. Without ropes, Todoroki freezes him solid in a block of ice. Endeavour arrives, as does Nighteye with a panicked Hitoshi. Aizawa arrives soon after, perched on a nearby rooftop, ready to whisk his kids away to safety should they need it.

The nomu swoops down, grabbing Izuku. Stain can’t help – trapped in his block of ice. Aizawa runs after Izuku. The nomu drops Izuku off at Shirgiraki’s feet, who is rather delighted to have the annoying boy from the USJ delivered to him out of the blue. He’s not, however, so happy with the knives he finds flying towards him. Kurogiri redirects them and the portal fades just in time for them to come face to face with the villain ‘Alley Cat”

“Well that was a cheap shot Alley Cat, what crawled up your ass and died?”

Aizawa places himself in front of Izuku, teeth bared. Izuku is clutching the leg of his costume. “Don’t hurt him and you won't lose a hand.” Kurogiri goes to attack, but Shigiraki waves him off, letting Aizawa take back Izuku.

“Sir?”

“Don’t you see? There are villains in the hero course. I smell a side quest, don’t you? We might even get some new party members out of it.

#bnha #bnha au #alleycat au #dadzawa #aizawa shouta #eraserhead #midoriya izuku #shinsou hitoshi #eri #bnha eri #Midoriya #shinsou #izuku #shirakumo oboro #shirakumo #present mic #yamada hizashi

[kabbage123]

Giving up

I can’t quite remember why I let my mental health get so bad it like it was just yesterday that I was ready to take on the world so innocent so naive I was only six when my grip of stability started to loosen I was just sitting in the room I shared with my mom and brothers trying to fix one of the few functional toys I had just mumbling to the imaginary boy in my head Brendan was his name he was nice to me he felt so real sometimes i would forget he wasn’t really there but things happened that day things that I wish I could regret my cousin who was an entire decade older then me came and did things to me things sometimes all I can do is blame myself for my ignorance three years later he’s off scott free because my poor single mother didn’t have the money to file a lawsuit I don’t remember the day I just can’t remember anything it’s like all a blur but that was my first attempt at going home. Two years later I’m starting middle school and everything is fine for a few months then rumors began to spiral tales of my brief encounter with death my molestation kids eves dropping on my mandatory therapy sessions and it gets better it was a chatholic school forcing me into isolation for a year before my mother finds out they blame me saying I chose to sit alone but of course what they do to resolve my mothers complaints force me to sit with my bullies and they knew full well stripping away my solitude just not to risk a lawsuit I had two friends at that school two friends who would constantly get in trouble just for standing next to me I left that school half way thru seventh grade they refused to fix my grades saying I did nothing when I’m reality I did all the work did everything I was told blindly following their agenda to ensure my failure it took three months to finally get my grades into my new school and the timer began on my sixteenth birthday I’ll go home be happy be free years spend by days turned to seconds months into minutes years would be ending just as they began the final stretch may of my sophomore year of high school two more months until I got home but of course the pent up anxiety anger sadness guilt couldn’t be held in tears began streaming down my face I had no control of my body no control at all I ran out of class sitting sobbing yelling at the imaginary boy who replaced my childhood friends I cried and screamed unable to calm down it subsided I get my stuff and walk to the counselors by teachers orders I walked into that office I waited nothing then I went to eat this was when words finally began to work for the first time in my life I blurted out phrases like “I’ll just bottle it up and hope I don’t explode.” We are already way past that point my friend forces me back to the office and I talk to the schools therapist and the words I say were jarring plans to leave a child in the care of my mother and psychotic plans and ideas of making a suicide look like a murder gruesome detail of every way I would cut and slice at my body the rest is a blur one moment I’m at the station the next I’m listening to Hamilton in an ambulance and suddenly I’m half awake in a hospital chair with three other people now it’s morning I’m hungry I’m unmedicaded I want to go home I get released into the custody of my mother and am now put onto survalence for a week I see my friend my only friend who had known of the whole situation. The next few months blur by like always it my birthday month twenty four days left then I’m free my mother calls us saying she has a surprise we hear the gift squealing in the seat next to her on call we wonder what it could be for hours we wait as my mother comes home holding a box with the gift inside the box is placed on te ground and opened to reveal a four week old kitten and for the first time in four years time slowed down it felt like the moments I head the kitten I could actually remember the days ticked by the time still going but I didn’t mind I cared for my kitten protected it anyway I could the day arrived the timer beeped and I stood still it was midnight on my birthday it was time

[rebclwithoutacause]

oh hi there, welcome to holiday, JACKSON-DELANEY “DEAN” DAWSON. oh wait, you’ve been here. has anyone ever told you that you look like XAVIER SERRANO? you’re MALE and use HE/HIM? just checking. and you’ve been here for ALL YOUR LIFE? you’re TWENTY-TWO too, right? just curious. you work over at BIG ED’S CAR REPAIRS still? you know people say you’re LOYAL & COURAGEOUS, but STUBBORN & IMPULSIVE so i guess take that with a grain of salt. well, at least i do know you’re excited for HALLOWEEN. bye now!

& BASICS.

FULL NAME: Jackson-Delaney Alfred Dawson NICKNAME(S): Dean DOB: May 4th, 1997 AGE: twenty-two FROM: Holiday, Maine OCCUPATION: mechanic ORIENTATION: bisexual actually gay but he don’t wanna admit that SOCIAL STATUS: lower/working class NOW PLAYING: Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran

& BIOGRAPHY.

Dean’s parents must have had it in for him from the start, giving him the first name “Jackson-Delaney” & insisting he be addressed in full. It was important to their family history, they said. “Jackson” for his father and “Delaney” for some long-dead ancestor that frankly, had probably amounted to little else other than breeding. Dean always hated it, even when he was young. His name made him stick out like a sore thumb — made him the primary target for local bullies.

It didn’t help that they were poor as all hell, either. Dean spent the majority of his formative years in a cramped little trailer. His father was a chain smoker and a raging alcoholic, who squandered away what little money they had. Dean’s easiest memories are of smoke filled lungs and the smell of cheap whiskey.

His mother was the gentle sort, who loved him dearly. Unfortunately she was stuck in an abusive marriage with Jackson Dawson — who’s drunken mind would more often then not create conflicts between the two of them, which he would resolve with his fists. Dean was seven when his father started targeting him, too.

Everyone at school knew he had a rough upbringing. The teachers gave him that look. He was trouble even before trouble began. Most of the other kids pushed him away. But in fourth grade, at the age of nine, he was accepted into a group of fellow rag-tag delinquents. He was given the handle “Dean” and somehow, it just stuck.

They understood one another in a way no one else did, accepted and loved one another despite their many flaws. As they approached high school they formed a “gang” of sorts, complete with matching leather jackets. “The Hornets” they called themselves. They were all leather and grease, bloody knuckles and scraped knees. But a family, nonetheless. The Hornets are what got Dean through the hardest points in his life — providing him with support and companionship. They always tried to help him, giving him a place to stay or some extra food when things got bad at home. their efforts veiled by cheap excuses like “my mom hates you, so come piss her off” or “we gotta beef you up, Dean-y boy,” He appreciated that.

Dean was fourteen when his father passed. The cause of death, a car accident that not only took his old man’s life, but also severely disabled his mother. Now unable to walk, Dean was tasked with caring for them both. His father was gone but the damage had been done. Dean was hardened to the world in a way no child ever should be. Finding peace in only his music and the tiny slivers of teen rebellion that the Hornets provided him.

Dean flunked out of high school in his final year.  Moving on to get a job as a mechanic at thd local garage. It’s been four years, but the hornets are still together. Stuck in that phase of teen rebellion that so preoccupies the troubled youth.

Dean wants to go back to school — his dream is to become a fireman. He wants to save people, rather than watch them fade away like he had his mother. However, he fears he’s not smart enough to do so, and even worse, what if the gang broke up? Dean couldn’t live with that. They’re the only family he has left.

HEADCANONS/MISC.

I know…he seems like a piece of shit…and he is but at least he knows it. & he’s trying…very hard to become a better person. Honestly, he probably needs some hardcore therapy but talking about your feelings is for pussies.

Will absolutely deck you if you DARE try and call him Jackson/Jack/Delaney/any derivative of his actual name

Dean’s BEST BUDDY is the leader of the hornets! They’ve been thick as thieves since they met. They’re also secretly crushing on one another? They kissed one night at a party in ninth grade. They were both heckin drunk, so they assume the other one doesn’t remember, and they never talked about it. Ever since then tho? There’s been some sexual tension in the gang.

Dean moved in with his best buddy when his mom died and now they share a shitty little apartment.

The hornets aren’t as tough as they think…sure they can crack a few skulls but honestly? they really care about one another and they’re all secretly a little soft.

And yeah, they’re all Greasers. It’s pretty extra.

All Dean listens to is Rock N’ Roll. The guy pomps his hair every day and carries a fucking comb in his back pocket.

#BringTheHornets

#tw car accident #tw child abuse #holidcyintro

[the6ixhq]

BACKGROUND

NAME ▶ Dylan Rosa FACECLAIM ▶ Dominique Provost-Chalkley  GENDER ▶ Cis-female (she/her) DATE OF BIRTH ▶ March 24th, 1993 (26) OCCUPATION ▶ Special needs teacher for hearing impaired children NEIGHBOURHOOD ▶ Bloor West Village

BIOGRAPHY

TW ▶ Illness, premature birth, bullying

Life started early for Dylan and her brother – two months early, to be exact. Her mother went into labor with what she thought were two boys so suddenly that her father as a first time parent, had no idea what to do. The process was long and scary, and though one child was completely healthy, Dylan experienced complications. She spent no time in her mothers arm before being rushed to an intensive care unit,  jaundiced, a fever, and an infection, nobody expected little Dylan to make it. With round the clock care and the world and it’s germs kept outside of a clear box, the only thing connecting her to the world outside the tubes that helped her breathe, it didn’t look good.

Still, her parents never gave up, and after almost two months of special care, Dylan was finally able to be in her mother’s arms, not long after being given a clean bill of health and finally sent home. Things were better than could be expected, the family just happy to have the baby home, but after a few weeks, the fever came back. At the hospital, the doctors would reveal and inner ear infection due to her premature birth that was greatly effecting Dylan’s left ear. Though they did all they could, the prediction that Dylan would lose her hearing gradually was unavoidable. While it was the last thing they wanted to hear, Dylan’s parents decided to remain optimistic that their daughter  was alive at all, and dedicated themselves to helping her adjust to life as best as they could.

It spite of  her hearing, Dylan was a happy girl. Sweet, charming, friendly, and loved by her family and friends, she grew well albeit smaller than most kids her age, loving to play and stay active.  

The years passed and Dylan was happy and well adjusted, her hearing gradually worsening, but the real blow came when she was twelve and her hearing deteriorated greatly. All hearing in her left ear was gone and she was discovered to be hard of hearing. With help from her hearing aid being minimal, her teachers and doctors moved Dylan to a special needs class. Dylan was devastated to move away from her friends that she’d grown so comfortable with and who understood her so well, feeling awkward and excluding by them as her disability forced her into a new circle. Though she got to knew the kids in her new class, Dylan still longed for the way things were.

Dylan was clearly sad, but her optimistic personally tried to look forward to all the future. When the time came for her to attend high school, she would face new troubles as her  new school  at the time lacked much aid for special needs kids. Due to her having some hearing in her youth, Dylan’s voice didn’t ‘sound deaf’ as she was harshly reminded by her peers. As the new girl, she was teased and bullied for her small figure and accused of lying or faking being deaf for attention. It left Dylan feeling isolated and alone in her freshman year, her brother allowing her to be with him and his friends, but Dylan not wanting to be a fifth wheel, resolved to find her own friends and come out of her shell. In spite of her disability, Dylan used her active nature to get her involved in after school activities, proving that her lack of hearing didn’t hinder her the way people thought it would. She joined various clubs, meeting disabled students and others with learning disabilities that would inspire Dylan to start a special safe space club for them all where they would address their personal issues and how the school could better become easily accessible for differently abled people.

At the time of graduation, Dylan was already aware of her calling in life. It was clear to Dylan that nothing would get done until someone made it happen, and deciding to be that person, she told the news to her parents she was going to become a teacher for children with special needs and advocate for their rights to a better experience they way she had in school. As she watched the tears well up in her parents eyes, she knew it was the right choice.

The years were long, the studying hard, but Dylan finally received a degree and was now a certified teacher.  Her goals set, she returned to her hometown after college with the fire burning in her every decision to prove to everyone that no matter what their personal setback, that they could do anything.

#6ixbio #( west end ) #illness tw #premature birth tw #bullying tw

[secretlystephaniebrown]

Take My Love: 2/?

Thanks guys for following along with this self-indulgent nonsense! <3

Just a tiny warning for this chapter, this is high school. Feelings get hurt. People are asses. Also, more world building about Jackie's (and Wash's and Donut's) home planet! Fun times!

Summary: Allison Texas is a wanted woman. She stole something very valuable from the Alliance. And even if it’s going to bring a world of trouble down on their heads, Carolina can’t help but think it might be worth it.

Pairings: Church/Tex/Jackie (OC)

Previous

Also on Ao3

The day after they meet, another boy steals Church’s glasses so Jackie kicks him in the shin.

She gets a bloody lip for that, but Church manages to grab his glasses and they go hide in the library. Not under the table this time, but on top of the thickest, widest shelves, perching out of sight and out of reach. .

“Why’d you do that?” He demands, glaring at her. “That was fucking dumb!”

Jackie stares at him, frowning. “You shouldn’t use that word, you’ll get in trouble,” she says.

“You’ll get in fucking trouble!” He yells, throwing his hands into the air. “It wasn’t a big deal, it’s just glasses!”

Jackie stares at him. “They’re expensive,” she says. The last time one of her bullies broke her glasses, it meant no new books or clothes for three months. Her family back in Iowa was stable, was comfortable, but there was never money for extras.

Church looks at her, confused. Then his mouth closes. “Oh.” He shifts, uncomfortable. “I can afford it,” he says. “Really.”

And that’s when Jackie is reminded that he’s from a whole other world. Things are different, here.

“Oh,” she says, and she feels her cheeks heat up.

Church grins at her, clearly trying to distract her, but she’ll take it. And never mention it, because even after knowing Church for only a day, she knows he’ll deny it. “Can’t believe you kicked that guy though. Did you see his face?”

Jackie smiles back, clutching her books to her chest.

“Still was fucking dumb,” he tells her.

“You’re such a jerk,” she sighs.

It’s an important thing to know about Leonard Church, she realizes later.

Two months later, Church tells her about Tex, who punched a guy in the face for him. “It was awesome,” he tells her, eyes wide and eager. He doesn’t shut up about her for a whole week, before Jackie finally gets to meet her, and sees what Church is talking about.

Tex is a whole year older than them, and she’s taller than Jackie by two full inches. Her hair is long and blonde and she’s got hard brown eyes and eyebrows that always seem sharp and angled, even when she’s laughing. She’s one of the kids who are going to be soldiers, so her uniform’s different. She’s scholarship, but Core scholarship, not Rim scholarship, and even Jackie, still trying to figure out the culture and nuances of the Core, can tell there’s an important difference.

She’s beautiful and tough and she doesn’t punch Jackie or take her books or make fun of her uniform. She just joins them at lunch one day and when Church starts to make fun of people, Tex joins in without even a second’s hesitation.

She starts to hang out with them sometimes. At first, Jackie’s not sure what to think about that; Tex gets bored in the library and prefers to punch her way out of problems than to run from them or to screw with their heads.

She’s really more of Church’s friend than Jackie’s. Jackie gets the feeling that Tex is distinctly unimpressed with her. Which hurts a little, because Tex is cool and pretty, even if she’s a bit mean sometimes. But Jackie’s used to people not liking her.

Then one of the older girls rips up one of the few pictures Jackie brought from home.

Jackie doesn’t leave her room all weekend, crying and missing home and wondering how much her parents would hate her if she flunked out so they’d send her back.

Church tries to come visit her. She doesn’t let him in.

When she comes out of her room, she finds two things.

A digital version of the photograph has been emailed to her account. She can see the tape holding it together, but it’s intact, and that’s what really matters.

And the girl who did it has a giant black eye and won’t even look at Jackie.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Jackie says to Tex, because who else would it have been?

Tex glances up at her. “She made you cry,” Tex says. “Seemed like she deserve it.”

Jackie smiles tentatively at Tex, and sits down next to her, closer than she’s let herself sit before.

After that, it’s different. Tex is her friend too, now. Jackie learns to be willing to put down her books every now and then to go follow Tex on whatever weird thing she wants to do that day--scale the fence and go into town, play a prank on the sports teams, break into the school gym and play loud music at midnight.

Jackie’s never done anything like that before in her life, and Church hasn’t, either. She loves this, spending time with them. Church tells stories; all sorts, both real and fictional. He’s good with words, and he knows a lot of things.

They play games; Church breaks couples up, Jackie sets them up, Tex places bets on it. Tex, Jackie learns, is poor, despite being from the Core. She never tells Tex that Core poor sounds pretty comfortable, really, because that’d be rude. Tex splits her winnings, sometimes, which is nice, since Mom and Dad haven’t been able to send much, with David being at the military academy. Mitch is helping out on the ranch, but Martha’s apprenticeship to a mechanic had to be paid for, and extra things for Jackie--spare uniforms, new glasses, some decent clothes to wear into town on their free weekends--have to fall to the side. Everything’s more expensive in the Core.

Church is rich, they learn. His father’s someone important, his mother is dead, he also has a sister at the military academy. Her name is Carolina. Jackie wonders if Carolina has met David. She considers writing to him, asking if they know each other, but she decides against it.

“Maybe you’ll find them, when you go,” Jackie tells Tex. It’s always hanging over their heads, the knowledge that Tex will graduate before them, move on to real military training, and then the army. She’ll leave them behind.

“Maybe,” Tex says, but she looks doubtful. “They sound boring though.”

Jackie laughs. “Tex! Don’t be rude.”

Tex and Church both roll their eyes at her.

Tex is not impressed by Jackie when she first meets her.

Most thirteen year olds are generally unimpressive to Tex, who is fourteen and thus that much more mature. But Jackie is a tiny little scrap of a a girl who follows Church around like a lost puppy. She’s... mousy, that’s the best word Tex has. Brown hair that never seems to be in control, blue eyes that never stay still, glasses that never seem to be on straight.

She barely even seems speak, those first few weeks, and when she does get started, it’s to correct or to ramble, and Tex doesn’t take either of those particularly well.

She’s a nerd, Tex decides, and she tolerates Church. Which is probably why Church sticks around. That and the adoring look on Jackie’s face most days. Church probably likes the ego boost.

One day though, Tex learns that one of the jerks that gave Church a black eye last week, who she’d warned off, had gone after him again.

Tex is planning on teaching them a lesson. A much more painful one than last time.

When she gets near the corner, she hears Jackie, and pauses, listening.

“So get out of here! And if I see you near Church again--”

The guy rips past Tex, face pale and his eyes red. Like he’d been crying. Like he was scared.

She peeks around the corner, and sees Jackie, looking very satisfied with herself. The look on her face isn’t mousy at all. It’s almost predatory in its confidence.

Tex’s eyebrow raises slowly, and she finds herself grinning.

It looks like she’s underestimated Jackie.

Tex resolves to pay more attention to her from then on.

When they’re fifteen, Church and Tex start dating.

Jackie’s fine with that; she’s glad they’ve finally stopped dancing around it, because they’ve obviously liked each other for ages, even if it means they’re too busy for her a lot of the time, instead spending their days just hanging out with just each other.

It’s fine, she tells herself, as she watches them walk away, holding hands. She has other friends. She’s good at making friends, now that the bullies are too scared of Tex to go after her. She spends more time with other people, focuses on her studies more. She runs a successful campaign to get one of the nicest girls in the class the title of homecoming queen, utterly humiliating the girl who’d been so sure she’d win, and probably would have if she hadn’t cheated off Church’s test last week.

But she doesn't get to share it with the other two, and Jackie pauses, missing them, even though they’re right across the common room from her. But they’re holding hands and laughing, and she doesn’t want to get in the way.

So she goes back to the library to study more.

Tex and Church lasts two months, a week and three days before they break up for the first time. There’s a huge row, a lot of broken china plates, and they both get detention for a week. They try to pass along angry messages through her and yell a lot.

Jackie’s bewildered, unsure of what to do or how to handle this. This is nothing like the relationships she saw back on Iowa. It lasts three whole days before she catches them making out in a broom closet.

Soon she gets used to it; the regular ups and downs, the breakups, the fights, the getting back together, the blissful weeks between those points, where things are calm and they’re getting along.

It’s not perfect; every time they break up, they tend to yank her back and forth like it’s a game of tug-of-war, and they tend to ignore her when they’re together, busy gazing at each other and kissing in corners. Jackie alternates between feeling harried and stressed and lonely and sad. She sleeps fitfully at night, missing the time before.

Jackie tries to date other people herself, trying to see what the big deal is. But they all tend to be boring, and every time she hangs out with them, she keeps thinking of Church or Tex, and that’s not fair on anyone, so she always ends it quickly. She’s not sure Tex or Church ever even notice any of them.

She gives up on that endeavor pretty quickly, and goes back to trying to make sure the two of them don’t forget to hand in their homework when they’re dating and passing messages between them when they’re broken up.

She sits on a couch across from them, while they cuddle and talk about a vid they went to see yesterday, and Jackie reads her book and tries to ignore the nasty, clawing feeling in her stomach.

It’s fine, she reminds herself. It’s a waste of time, being jealous. What she’s jealous of, she’s never quite sure. Is she jealous of Church? Of Tex? Of both of them, for having something like that? Is it even jealousy, or is it just her being bitter that they’re leaving her behind?

She’s never sure. She wishes that it would just go away though. It’s making things harder, when she should just be happy for them.

Then comes the big one. The nasty one.

Jackie isn’t even sure what it’s about, but this time, she thinks, they might be broken up for good. Tex is furious, spitting mad, and Church is quietly sulking. They don’t even want to talk to each other through her, and every time they meet, they yell and fight again, making Jackie want to run away until the dust settles. She splits her time between the two of them as best she can, trying to help keep them apart to avoid hurt feelings.

“He’s just such a jerk,” Tex says. They’re on the roof of the school, which they’re not supposed to be, but Jackie’s bad at telling Tex she’s scared to do things. Jackie hasn’t ever managed to convey to Tex just how horrible it would be, to go back to the Rim. Tex hates school, most days, and misses home. So does Church.

Jackie misses her family, but she does not miss the Rim. She doesn’t miss hungry nights or dust storms or schools where the teachers don’t know what to do with her. She doesn’t miss no one else being able to follow her rapid fire train of thoughts or to see things. Even her family was slow, most days. She misses them like crazy, but she still has letters, and she needs this. She needs to do something. She needs to matter.

She knows what everyone sees. A girl in second hand clothes, clinging to her scholarship with everything she has, competing to be the smartest to stand out, to prove herself. But all her awards can’t erase the Rim accent, all her fancy books don’t change the fact that she slips into farm idioms on occasion, and all of her hard work doesn’t make her uniform fit better or fix the scuffs on her shoes.

She’ll always be the girl from the Rim, but back home, she’d just be a useless burnout with hands too soft to use a hoe, so she’ll suck it up and take it.

This world is bright and real and clever and she loves it, even if she hates what it stands for. And she’ll do anything to stay here.

“He can be, yeah,” she says, staring upwards, trying to see if she can make out any constellations. The stars aren’t real here. They’re projections. She wonders what the stars look like, back home.

“He doesn’t control me, why doesn’t he get that? Why can’t he just trust me?” Tex asks.

“He’s stupid, sometimes,” Jackie says, leaning against Tex’s arm. “He’s a boy.”

Tex lets out a huff. “Sometimes I’m sick of boys.” Then she leans away from Jackie, as if she just saw something.

Jackie lifts her face up to look at Tex, curious about what she saw, and then Tex is kissing her.

Jackie doesn’t even hesitate before kissing back, bunching her hands in the thick fabric of Tex’s coat, because she’s thought about this way more times than she should admit, even to herself. Jackie’s never kissed someone before, and the fact that it’s Tex makes it even better. It’s warm and nice, almost idyllic. Tex tastes like the sweets Tex stole from her roommate’s stash and it makes Jackie want to laugh, because it’s so perfectly Tex. Jackie’s eyes are closed and she tries to convince herself she’s not dreaming.

Then there’s a clatter of something against the ground--books hitting the ground, and Jackie pulls away from Tex, and she realizes why Tex kissed her in a moment of horrifying clarity.

Church is standing there, looking wide eyed and hurt and the warm, dizzy feeling that had just filled Jackie only moments ago is suddenly gone, replaced with white hot fury and pain.

“Stay away from me!” Jackie pushes Tex away, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Stupid, how could she ever think that Tex would—how could she do that to Church?

She runs away, and neither of them try to stop her.

Church comes to find her the next morning. He’s waiting outside of her door, as usual after a fight, hands in his pockets, head bowed.

“I’m sorry,” she blurts out, the second she sees him, clutching her book to her chest.

He gives her a watery grin. “It’s fine,” he says, but he’s still hurt. She knows he’s only not yelling at her, calling her names, because he doesn’t want to talk about it. If he wasn’t so hurt, he’d be making her grovel and cry, lashing out with his infamous temper. She swallows, and tries to make him happy. She helps him arrange a gigantic breakup of the school’s power couple and lets him play his stupid videogames all night instead of making him do his history project. She does it for him, carefully imitating his messy handwriting and practicing his turns of phrases while he curses loudly as he misses every shot.

She determinedly does not think about Tex, or the kiss.

They’re studying at the library late one night, rubbing elbows while making fun of each other’s fields of study, when Church grabs her arm, breaking off a tangent she was in the middle of.

(It’s been fifteen days since the kiss. Fifteen days since she’s let herself be in the same room as Tex.)

“You like me, right?” He blurts. His eyes are wide, and she thinks he might look nervous.

Jackie stares at him, confused by the expression on his face. She’s good at reading people, but she has no idea what to say. She doesn’t know what’s the right answer.

“Yeah,” she says, slowly.

“Good,” Church says, and then he leans forward and presses his lips against hers.

It’s different than kissing Tex; Tex was harder, fiercer, more sure of herself, while Church is softer, cradling her face in his hands.

Jackie melts into it just a little, leaning forward, bumping her nose against his. Her mind, normally firing off in a thousand directions at once, focuses on one thing only, and it’s Church. He tastes like bitter coffee and his hair is soft beneath her hands and Jackie’s wanted to do this for so long. Their glasses bump together and Jackie smiles against Church’s lips.

“Am I interrupting something?” Tex’s voice is acerbic and cutting and Jackie flinches away from Church with enough force that she knocks over her own chair, landing on the floor of the library in a sprawl.

She stares up at Church, who’s flushing and looking angry, and then stares at Tex, who doesn’t look hurt. Tex doesn't do hurt. Tex looks furious.

The realization that she’s just been used again sits heavy in her stomach.

“I can’t believe you!” She yells at Church, and this time she’s not fast enough, tears flowing down her face. “Both of you! You’re such—” A sob cuts off whatever she’s going to say next and she grabs her books and runs away again.

And again, neither of them chase her. She hears the echoes of their fighting down the hall as she runs as far away from the library as she can manage.

Jackie manages to avoid them for a full week, which, given the size of the school, is pretty impressive.

They manage to corner her on the grounds. She’s been studying in the small grove of fake trees instead of in the library to avoid Church, but they must have spotted her or bribed her roommate, since they corner her.

They’re holding hands. Jackie struggles with the waves of emotions that threaten to overwhelm her—happiness and jealousy and sadness and anger.

Jackie wonders if they’re mad at her. She can’t figure out their expressions, can’t figure out what they’re thinking. She did kiss them both back. She wonders if they’re going to tell her she’s not their friend anymore because she kissed them.

She hopes not. She might have other friends, but she doesn’t have other Texes or Churches.

“What do you want?” She demands, drawing her knees up to her chest. She’s not ready to talk to them. She’s hurt and mad and upset in ways she doesn’t quite understand.

“We’re sorry!” Church blurts.

Tex is looking at the ground very carefully. “Shouldn’t have done that,” she mutters. “Made you cry.”

Jackie flushes. “It’s—” She stops herself from saying it’s alright, because it’s not. She knows that. She’s not just going to be okay with that. “That’s why you’re sorry? Because I cried?”

“It wasn’t right to drag you into our mess,” Tex says, finally looking up. “Not fair on you.”

Jackie swallows. Her throat hurts. It’s not what she wants them to be sorry for, but they don’t know why she’s upset, and she’s not about to tell them. “Okay,” she whispers. “I guess that’s—that’s okay then.” She offers them a smile, wobbly as it is.

They grin at her, and sit down on either side, wedging her firmly between them. The tightness in her chest loosens, even if her throat still hurts. She’s missed this. She’s missed them.

“Hey Jackie,” Tex says, pulling Jackie out of her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Want to try something? For science?”

Jackie lowers her book. “You always make fun of my experiments,” she says, accusing.

“It’s an important experiment,” Church tells her.

She looks between the two of them, frowning. “Fine,” she says suspiciously. “What do I need—”

Tex cuts her off by curling her fingers around Jackie’s neck and kissing her again.

Jackie freezes this time, refusing to melt, even though Tex’s mouth is warm and firm and demanding. Tex’s other hand brushes against her cheek in a way that’s oddly tender and then Jackie gives in, kissing back with everything she has. This is a dream, she thinks, closing her eyes. Her mind again is hyperfocusing, refusing to acknowledge the existence of anything besides Tex and her lips and the way that Church is pressed up on her other side and how fast her heart is racing.

Church’s fingers dig into her arm, bringing reality back just a little. “My turn,” he says, and Tex pulls away and Jackie is dizzy and then Church is kissing her, with Tex’s hand still warm against the back of her neck and Jackie gives in even faster this time, grabbing the collar of Church’s uniform to pull him closer, and Church lets out a small yelp, which makes Tex laugh, the sound reverberating through her chest in a way that Jackie, pressed up against her, can feel.

She pulls away, her brains still not working right. “What?” She asks, blearily and confused. Tex has a hand wrapped around her wrist, as if to prevent her from running away again.

“We like you,” Tex says, and Jackie twists around to stare at her, wide eyed, because she could not have just heard that.

“You like us,” Church offers, slightly less sure of himself. “And well, we like each other. So it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Jackie’s mouth hangs open, in shock, while her brain tries to process this information. “You… you mean it?” She hates how her voice sounds. How vulnerable she sounds.

“Yes,” Tex says, close enough to her ear to make her shiver.

“C’mon, Jacks,” Church says, fingers threading through the hand that Tex isn’t holding captive. “We did the experiment. I’d say it was a success.”

“What do you say?” Tex cups Jackie’s face in her other hand, her eyes oddly serious.

“I—I—”

“Stop stalling,” Tex orders. “I know you’ve got an answer in that big brain of yours.”

Jackie manages to nod, her heart still racing in her ears.

Tex smirks. “Great.” She yanks Jackie forward onto her lap and kisses her again.

They spend the rest of the evening on the grounds, just kissing each other and laughing.

Jackie runs her fingers through Church’s hair and leans against Tex’s shoulder and smiles so wide that her face hurts.

They have six months, two weeks, and three days before everything changes.

Tex finishes school and gets transferred to the military academy.

“I’ll call,” Tex tells them, pressing her forehead against Church’s, then Jackie’s. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“Okay,” Jackie says, kissing Tex quickly. “We’ll be here.”

And they are, for a month and five days. They message her and have video calls and things are okay.

And then Church gets transferred to the Academy.

Jackie’s heard about the Academy. It’s prestigious and fancy. Only the best of the best get in there.

She also knows, although Church doesn’t like to talk about it, that Church’s father is in charge of the Academy. And she knows that Church hasn’t seen his father in years. In all the ways that counts, she knows, it’s just Church and his sister, Carolina. (Carolina’s in the same school as Tex now, as David. Jackie wonders if Tex has found them.)

Church hates his father. But he won’t say no to the Academy. It’s too big, too important. With the resources and the training they can offer him, he can do anything. The sky’s the limit.

“My scores in physics were high enough that they decided they wanted me,” he says, staring at the email. “I—Jacks…”

“Hey,” she twines her fingers through his and squeezes. “I’ll join you soon, probably. Pysch exams are in a few months. I’ll probably be high enough to make the cut, don’t you think?”

He looks at her. “Maybe,” he says, smirking.

Jackie elbows him in the side. “Jerk,” she says.

He kisses her, leaving his forehead pressed against hers, their glasses knocking together. “Keep in touch, okay?”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” she promises.

Church hates his father. But that’s okay. He doesn't need him. That’s why he has her and Tex.

Jackie wants to take Church home, someday. Show him the farm and let her siblings pry things out of him and her mother fuss over him and Dad tutt over how skinny he is and feed him until he can’t move.

One day, she tells herself, as she helps him pack his bags.

One day, she’ll bring them home with her.

It takes Church three weeks to realize what’s wrong with the Academy.

He also knows that Jackie isn’t a guarantee for a spot. Psych students are a dime a dozen, and they aren’t that interested in Jackie from what he can tell, poking around in their computer files every chance he gets.

She can’t come here. Church thinks, looking at the face of his roommate after her last“session”. He’s seen the blood on the floors, he’s heard the screams. There’s nothing he can do to stop this, nothing he can do to save anyone, not even himself. They monitor communications, and while he has relative freedom as a new student who hasn’t been pulled for a session, he knows it’s only a matter of time.

It’s not like he thought, it’s not like they were told.

He doesn’t know what they want, he doesn’t know what they’re planning.

But he does know this. That a girlfriend (or two) is a weakness he can’t afford. They use people against you, in the Academy.

He needs to keep her safe. They can’t touch Tex, they can’t touch Carolina, but Jackie’s just a kid from the Rim. No one would care if Jackie goes missing. Or, even if they did, no one could do anything about it, and that’s what really matters.

“I don’t think this will work. Sorry. –Church.”

#The Firefly AU #Steph Writes #Donut Siblings #The Ghost Ship #Idon't even know man

[fictionerd]

Good to see you, friends! So this week’s episode opens exactly where the last one ended, and we get an extension on the conversation. Tsutsui makes the same arguments for his case I did last week. Namely that he’s socially inept and it’s hard for him to understand a problem if people don’t give him something other than inference to go on. Iroha, of course, is having none of it and tells him to just “think about it normally”. Let me take an aside here.

Iroha, you’re off base. This is the man who, when you told him you found men baking attractive, picked up a cookbook and learned to make sweets for you. WHEN YOU WERE ALREADY DATING! Dude went out and learned a skillset (Admittedly one that’s not hard to pick up if you learn how to follow recipes) for no other reason than he thought it’d make you happy. Give him something to run with and he will make your wildest dreams come true.

Tsutsui, While I AM defending you. I must say that you have seen far and away enough cheesy romance in anime that you should be able to pick up the cues here. I get that anime isn’t meant to be reflective of actual social interactions, and that usually you don’t want to pattern your behavior in these situations based on scenes from anime.In this ONE instance, however we have a textbook fucking scenario. You’re failing to reciprocate,dude! She keeps telling you she loves you. You feel too inferior to reply in kind. FIX THAT! (Yeah, I realized in the week+ since I watched the last episode that’s what she meant so my bad there).

So moving into the episode proper: Tsutsui meets back up with Ayado in the garden. (Does she actually attend classes or is she just always there?) They exchange awkward small talk based upon their final encounter from last episode, and before Tsutsui can take off to bury his head up his own ass she hands him a massive sack of potatoes. He takes the tubers then returns to tormenting his tortured psyche.

He’s really hung up on this whole “Iroha is mad at me and I can’t figure out why” thing. Then he has an epiphany. If there’s no way I can figure this out on my own then maybe I can get some help from a friend and so turns to Ito. However, Ito informs him that he has other things to do and says that Tsutsui and Iroha should just have lunch together on their own being apparently oblivious to how their relationship is going. When Tsutsui discovers that Ito’s been spending time with a cat instead of him he jumps to the conclusion that Ito has somehow snapped due to loneliness and makes an ass of himself.

When Ito calls him out for his insensitive, self-centered behavior it shatters him and he has to spend some time later that night having a flashback to come to a realization about what to do.

He remembers the halcyon days of his Chuunibyo when he was a back-corner loner who constantly had earphones in listening to, no doubt, the choicest of epic soundtracks in preparation for the day he was finally crowned the King of all Demon hosts.

Turns out that back then he was even MORE of an antisocial jerkbucket, by which I mean he was a jerkbucket intentionally rather than the unintentional jerkbucketry we’ve been treated to this episode. At first he slapped away any attempt at friendship because “Anyone who’s interested in you is doing it out of some desire to fix you and not out of genuine kindness. I’m just waiting for the day you assholes all sprout angelic wings and halos and attempt to Save my soul by beating me senseless with divine armaments so I can finally unleash the hellfire within me to burn away all the haters!”

Later on we see that in spite of his stand-offish attitude he has this thing about repaying debts and so in return for Ito finding his headphones he actually shows up to a task he was assigned to do anyway. (Granted it was sort of forced on him). It’s here that he gets a real look at what the other guys in class think of Ito which naturally is something along the lines of “Ito’s a good dog. Show him a little kindness and he’ll be blindly loyal to you forever!” Naturally Tsutsui’s response is to say, “Well, how about it? Wanna ditch the heavenly host and come reign in hell with me!?”

Okay… I may be taking the Chuunibyo jokes too far particularly since it’s only based on a single comment by Ito at the end of the flashback. What really happens is that they walk home together because it’s raining and Ito offers to share his umbrella. They have a talk about how the rest of the class is using Ito as an excuse not to do homework and he’s just going along with it because he doesn’t want to be hated by everyone. Tsutsui tells him, “I don’t think you’ll die or anything if people hate you.”

This sage wisdom effects Ito in some profound manner so the next time the class bully is bugging Tsutsui and takes it into his head to destroy private property Ito actually stands up for him and gets beat up for his trouble. He then tells Tsutsui that it was because an issue of Animeid is worth 800 yen and when Tsutsui is shocked and asks how he knows Ito replies with. “You’re not the only Chuunibyo here.” Thus the source of my humor for this section was established.

Ito tells Tsutsui that he decided to give up on a lot of things and that wasn’t honest. He says he’ll make it up to him by hanging out with him from now on. Huh? Am I missing something here? The only person Ito has to make anything up to is himself. Oh whatever just roll with it.

Having remembered all of this in the time it took him to peel and apparently mash the potatoes Tsutsui decides that he doesn’t believe his Chuuni self. If Ito hates him he really will die.

Wow… Way to out-edge yourself there, Tsutsui.

I partially kid. I know what that feeling is like. When you feel like your only friends must hate your guts it can make you feel like you’ve got no reason to keep on going. So really while I mock that attitude I also understand it.

Tsutsui takes potato dumplings to school the next day by way of apology to Ito for failing to see beyond his own emotional needs and the two reconcile. You’d think this would trigger an epiphany in Tsutsui as to why Iroha’s been so angry, but NOPE! He rides a wave of momentum to her classroom and chickens out at the last second only to later look up her address and just show up on her doorstep like a stalker. Which he thankfully lampshades. Iroha noticed him standing forbodingly outside her house and asks what he wants and he offers her peace-offering dumplings as well.

[sighs] Do I have to cover this? It feels like it’s a farce and resolves absolutely nothing. Okay, FINE! You’re right it’s in the charter and this is already super late.

Okay, he says he wants to apologize, but he can’t really do that if he doesn’t know what’s wrong then tries to peace out. She responds with…

Anyway she invites him up to her room. He takes the opportunity to… Lay his head on her bed and smell it? Is that a thing? I just… Don’t get it. Does he not clean his sheets very often? Is that what that’s about? Whatever… Let’s get to the meat of this bit.

He’s apparently super scandalized when he realizes she wears low-necklines and short skirts at home. Dude, just how distrusting of humanity are you? [remembers his chuunibyo jokes from earlier] Right, fair enough. Dude’s sheltered as all hell moving on.

Iroha tells him the reason she was mad is because she felt he didn’t trust her. Like no matter how many times she told him she loved him, he never seemed to believe she meant it. He responds that he can’t help but believe her it’s just the circumstances he can’t believe. They kiss he mentally stammers in disbelief about his situation. They engage in possibly the least intimate looking hug I’ve ever seen…

Then he snaps at the mere thought of being sexually attracted to someone. I’m not kidding. He thinks ‘ I can’t’ seemingly topples to a compromising position and then flips out and runs the hell away apologizing profusely and berates himself for being “dangerous” because he was sexually attracted to this girl who he is romantically attracted to and whom he is FUCKING DATING!

The next day when they meet at the shoe lockers in the morning he runs away AGAIN saying “Don’t come near me for the time being”

After said massive freakouts, Tsutsui somehow thinks it’s a good idea to bring dumplings to Ayado. All I have to say is: “Don’t do this! Please for the love of all that is holy, don’t do this! I see what you’re trying to do. She’s going to have followed him or otherwise be looking on and get the wrong idea. Don’t you DO IT!”

GOD DAMMIT!

Okay… First some positive. I was wrong about my assumptions as to where this would go last week and for that I apologize. It seems they weren’t planning to sacrifice Iroha’s character to the great god known only as “plot”. On to the bad parts though.

Iroha is projecting like hell onto Tsutsui. She talks a big deal about how she doesn’t feel like he trusts her, and then the next day when he makes an admittedly bone-headed move she automatically assumes the worst. Or at least that’s how they seem to be painting it and if there’s one thing I hate it’s over-reactionary romantic syndrome. Fortunately we have the terrible judge of character Ishino to act as our litmus test and go forth on a tirade FOR Iroha. Hopefully when she goes on the warpath Iroha will twig to the line of logic established about Ishino being a terrible judge of character and realize that maybe she ought to ASK what the situation was between Tsutsui and Ayado.

Of course I can’t just let that be all I say on the matter because Iroha isn’t the only one being an idiot here. Tsutsui… Why are you being this way? Why are you terrified of the thought that you could be sexual attracted to this lady whom you are also romantically attracted to? I mean maybe the argument could be made that he’s asexual, but that doesn’t seem to be the case and this is Japan we’re talking about here. (Though admittedly if that does turn out to be the case and they manage to sort through that I’d be super impressed.)

I mean Ito does appear to be a feline other-kin and potentially a cat-whisperer so maybe that’s the direction they’ll go, I’m just not in the habit of hearing hooves in Central Park and assuming Zebra. Unless it’s for comedic effect of course.

[Sighs] Maybe I’m just not empathetic enough. I need to take a break. What do I have to do next for catchup duty.

[whispering off “screen”]

Butlers x Battlers!? I need a drink >: { Until next post, keep talking fiction, friends! I’ll see you soon.

#Anime #3D Kanojo Real Girl #3D Kanojo #Episode 6 #Fictionerd #Let's Talk Anime

[sad-ch1ld]

via RSI Comm-Link

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

2947.12.12 SET

by Sean Nazawa

The final part in a series following a class of recruits moving through the Navy’s training system.

A business executive has been abducted while in transit from a trade conference in the Xi’an Empire. Advocacy investigators were able to identify and track the kidnappers back to an abandoned comm relay. Intel suggested that they had hollowed out the interior, pressurized sections and transformed it into a small hideout. From a strategic perspective, the hideout was a nightmare: complete visibility against any approach, homemade proximity mines, and multiple bulkheads inside that could quickly be triggered to lock down and trap agents. The Advocacy has turned to the Navy for assistance in rescuing the hostage. A flight of Avengers were deployed to resolve the situation. They were currently keeping a wide berth of the relay, their trajectory insinuating that they were simply passing by.

A harrowing circumstance, for certain, as this type of scenario could easily prove deadly for everyone involved.

Thankfully, it’s not real.

This staged event is the final test that this group of Naval recruits will face before graduation. Although they don’t know this, their performance in this exercise will be reviewed by the Navy and even the Marines to determine where these recruits will be assigned. Intended to be as close to a real world operation as possible, the military have spared no expense in orchestrating the illusion.

The ‘outlaws’ are members of the Navy’s 208th Squadron, recently redeployed from active service on the Vanduul front, and many of them are enjoying this bit of entertainment. Bravo Flight leader Commander Harold Rifke spent the days before the exercise coming up with extensive backstories for the other pilots and capturing fake ransom demand vids that he’s been sending sporadically to Divisional Officer Edward Aino, the conductor of this simulated chaos, to forward on to the recruits.

I’m standing with Aino onboard a C&C ship, overseeing the entire wargame play out. Analysts and comms officers coordinate both sides of the engagement. The outlaw chatter is considerably more colorful; the 208th are really getting into their roles.

I watch the recruits’ ships disappear from the hologlobe. Under acting squadron leader Toulo Chalke’s orders, they’re breaking towards the comm relay. Aino listens intently as they relay their positions to each other. He shakes his head and takes a sip of sujin tea.

“Tell Rifke to hack their comms,” he yells over to the comms officer coordinating the outlaw channel, then glances at me. “They shouldn’t give away their positions.”

Over the course of the exercise Aino will continue to throw what he calls ‘surgical handicaps’ against the recruits. He wants them off-balance, to be the underdog.

I pick out the specific recruits among their brief clipped exchanges:

Callum Weaver is confidently adjusting the approach vectors of his flightmates. This scrawny kid from Aremis has really come into his own since beginning flight training and now acts as the number two for Chalke.

The acting squadron leader is a bit of a celebrity around the Forges. Even though his father is Beo Chalke, legendary sataball player for Jata SC, and his mother is Valina Razari, award-winning star of Tears of Time and Last Stand of Lidenvald (to name a few), to the recruits he’s just ‘Paladin.’ The nickname born from an incident that occurred three months ago where Chalke jumped in to help several recruits who were being bullied in the commissary.

“Sir, Rifke’s moved two flights to their position. He says they aren’t there.”

Aino grins.

Suddenly the outlaw comm channel explodes. The five ships that stayed back to guard the relay start calling out targets. The recruits drop the pretense and transition into combat updates. I hear Lyssa Vale, the brawler of the recruits, immediately mixing it up with the outlaw pilots.

Talkative on the comms, Vale is one of the most dedicated recruits I’ve seen. She is constantly pushing herself to a ridiculously high standard, putting hour after hour into sims, perpetually drilling herself and whoever she can loop into her training regimen. It seems to be paying off though; she’s ferocious in a fight.

The outlaws at the relay hold their ground as long as they can until virtual laser fire from the recruits finally take them down. With Vale providing cover, Weaver exits his ship and leads a pair of pilots into the relay to secure the hostage. They hope to finish their risky EVA before Rifke and two flights of outlaws race back.

The rest of the exercise is a single protracted brawl. The recruits do their best, but eventually the seasoned combat pilots of the 208th turn the tide. Weaver’s the last holdout, but he gets taken out just after he gets the hostage back to his ship.

Seven outlaws remain, the hostage is dead and the entire recruit squadron has been eliminated.

Two hours later, the recruits have gathered in Aino’s classroom for their debriefing. The room’s drenched in silence. Lyssa Vale is still wired from the op. Her leg bounces up and down as she glares ahead into space. Weaver aimlessly flips through his mobi. Even Chalke looks disappointed until he finally settles back in his seat and breaks the silence.

“Well, we almost had them.”

“Almost isn’t good enough,” Vale mutters.

“C’mon, Vale, you took out what, six? Seven?” Chalke seems intent on raising the spirits in the room.

The door suddenly opens and Aino strides into the room. He cuts a path to the front, powers up the system and loads all the captures of the exercise. He’s got everything: individual pilot cams, hologlobe recordings, comm chatter. For the next four hours, he walks them through the wargame, step by step. He grills them on each decision, why they made the choices they made, and what they would change in retrospect. There was no chastisements. No judgment on the actions of his recruits. It was purely objective analysis.

The recruits, however, seem locked in the loss.

Aino suddenly stops. He looks over the glum faces of the recruits in the room and shakes his head.

“You all need to grow the [redacted] up,” he mutters, tossing his pointer onto the desk.

That gets everyone’s attention. Aino draws out the pause and sits on the corner of his desk.

“Let me tell you all something. This job? The missions that you’ll fly? Any one of them can be a one-way ticket. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most routine patrol in the world, there’s always a chance that something could go wrong and one of you won’t come home. Now, I know you’re all sitting there, pissed off that you didn’t succeed. Let me let you in on a little secret: you weren’t supposed to. We did everything we could to stack the odds against you. Wilkes, remember your missile pod jam? I did that. Teague, your weapon overheating wasn’t an accident.”

The recruits exchange confused glances.

“You all saw failure, but I’ll tell you what I saw. I saw a squadron, working together, executing orders with precision and excellence. Chalke, you broke an engagement with an easy kill to drop flares and protect Kelso. Vale, you’d pick fights with pilots to get them away from teammates that were in trouble. Hell, feeding us the wrong position over your comms was genius. I thought we were gonna lose the op because of that.”

The recruits chuckle. Weaver gets some pats on the back. Aino smiles at them before he continues. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile at his recruits.

“You all did good. Yeah, you didn’t succeed. You lost people. But that’s the real lesson here. As a Navy pilot, you’re gonna be in these circumstances a lot. What we’re trying to do is condition you to act rationally in impossible situations. That doesn’t mean you’re always gonna make the right call. The real trick though, you gotta learn how to keep going. I know a lot of pilots, some of the finest pilots I ever flew with, who would rather be the one who gets punched out then have to go on without one of their squadron. You gotta be smarter than that. You gotta do your best. You got to look out not only the people beside you, but also for the civilians you’re protecting. Sometimes it’ll work out. Sometimes it won’t. Either way, you gotta pull yourself together and hit the next mission with a clear head. Now, I wish I could tell you how to do that, but you gotta figure that out for yourself.”

Aino studies the faces of the recruits.

“I’ve trained a lot of pilots, but I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen a class help each other as much as you do. I hope some of you get assigned together, but if you don’t, I hope you take that attitude to wherever you land because you all have something special.”

The room is silent for several moments. Someone gently knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Rifke pokes his head in.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s all right, commander,” Aino says as he stands and grabs his pointer. “What can we do for you?”

“Well, sir,” Rifke opens the door and steps inside. Some of the other pilots from the 208th are outside. “We were wondering when you were done debriefing these Rorys, if we could treat them to some drinks. Vanduul don’t fight as hard as they did.”

Aino looks at his class. He gives a quick motion with his head for them to go. All the recruits slowly file out of the class to the cheers of the combat pilots outside.

Weaver lingers by the door, then turns back to Aino.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

Weaver smiles and leaves.

I wait as the door slowly clicks shut. Aino starts to quietly collect his things. I feel I have to say something.

“That was a nice speech, sir.”

“Was it?” Aino finishes packing up, then looks at me. “What I said should have terrified them. The other DOs like to say the Rubicon is the first moment they land on Kilian, but if you ask me, it never stops. Doing this job every day will challenge you to your core. The Navy has been my single greatest pride and has broken me in ways that even I can’t see.” Aino pauses. “But they’ll see. Everybody does.”

* * * * * * * * *

The class of 2947 graduation ceremony is held in the late summer on Macarthur and features over two thousand graduates in a variety of capacities. The flight academy alone is responsible for over two hundred. Aino surprised me and arranged for me to sit with the rest of the Divisional Officers for the ceremony.

I can see Arley Finn and Yen Hardigan, the two DOs from that first day on the tarmac that introduced me to the intense journey that Naval recruits faced. As I watch the proceedings commence, I can’t help but reflect on the variety of people I’d met on this incredible journey. All committed to the core tenets of the Navy and protect people like me.

The entire graduating class stands and repeats the same Oath that has been uttered by every Navy member for centuries:

Hear and witness that I do solemnly pledge, mind and body, that I will serve and protect the United Empire of Earth against all who would seek to harm it and its people.

That I will faithfully discharge the duties asked of me, and when called upon, I will defend the Empire with my life.

That I will be the sword and the shield. That I will not falter nor fail, but fight and win.

That I swear to do all in my power to act as a guardian of freedom and justice, as a champion of honor and valor, and as a true and proud member of the UEE Navy.

I finally spot Weaver, Chalke, Vale and the rest of my friends all clustered in the crowd, relishing each word of the Oath. And when they finish, their journey (and mine, I suppose) is over.

They are official members of the UEE Navy.

I talk briefly with Callum Weaver after graduation, just a brief conversation while he waits to receive his first posting, but I ask him about that first day on the freezing tarmac of Kilian. When confronted by DO Hardigan, Callum said that he was joining to “not feel helpless.”

“So,” I ask. “Do you still feel that way?”

This scrawny kid from Plantock River, only a couple hours from my house here on Aremis, who survived the horrors of the Vanduul attack, thinks about it for a few moments.

“I don’t think that feeling ever goes away … but now I know I’m not alone.”

#RSI Comm-Link #star citizen #roberts space industries

[starcitizenprivateer]

via RSI Comm-Link

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

2947.12.12 SET

by Sean Nazawa

The final part in a series following a class of recruits moving through the Navy’s training system.

A business executive has been abducted while in transit from a trade conference in the Xi’an Empire. Advocacy investigators were able to identify and track the kidnappers back to an abandoned comm relay. Intel suggested that they had hollowed out the interior, pressurized sections and transformed it into a small hideout. From a strategic perspective, the hideout was a nightmare: complete visibility against any approach, homemade proximity mines, and multiple bulkheads inside that could quickly be triggered to lock down and trap agents. The Advocacy has turned to the Navy for assistance in rescuing the hostage. A flight of Avengers were deployed to resolve the situation. They were currently keeping a wide berth of the relay, their trajectory insinuating that they were simply passing by.

A harrowing circumstance, for certain, as this type of scenario could easily prove deadly for everyone involved.

Thankfully, it’s not real.

This staged event is the final test that this group of Naval recruits will face before graduation. Although they don’t know this, their performance in this exercise will be reviewed by the Navy and even the Marines to determine where these recruits will be assigned. Intended to be as close to a real world operation as possible, the military have spared no expense in orchestrating the illusion.

The ‘outlaws’ are members of the Navy’s 208th Squadron, recently redeployed from active service on the Vanduul front, and many of them are enjoying this bit of entertainment. Bravo Flight leader Commander Harold Rifke spent the days before the exercise coming up with extensive backstories for the other pilots and capturing fake ransom demand vids that he’s been sending sporadically to Divisional Officer Edward Aino, the conductor of this simulated chaos, to forward on to the recruits.

I’m standing with Aino onboard a C&C ship, overseeing the entire wargame play out. Analysts and comms officers coordinate both sides of the engagement. The outlaw chatter is considerably more colorful; the 208th are really getting into their roles.

I watch the recruits’ ships disappear from the hologlobe. Under acting squadron leader Toulo Chalke’s orders, they’re breaking towards the comm relay. Aino listens intently as they relay their positions to each other. He shakes his head and takes a sip of sujin tea.

“Tell Rifke to hack their comms,” he yells over to the comms officer coordinating the outlaw channel, then glances at me. “They shouldn’t give away their positions.”

Over the course of the exercise Aino will continue to throw what he calls ‘surgical handicaps’ against the recruits. He wants them off-balance, to be the underdog.

I pick out the specific recruits among their brief clipped exchanges:

Callum Weaver is confidently adjusting the approach vectors of his flightmates. This scrawny kid from Aremis has really come into his own since beginning flight training and now acts as the number two for Chalke.

The acting squadron leader is a bit of a celebrity around the Forges. Even though his father is Beo Chalke, legendary sataball player for Jata SC, and his mother is Valina Razari, award-winning star of Tears of Time and Last Stand of Lidenvald (to name a few), to the recruits he’s just ‘Paladin.’ The nickname born from an incident that occurred three months ago where Chalke jumped in to help several recruits who were being bullied in the commissary.

“Sir, Rifke’s moved two flights to their position. He says they aren’t there.”

Aino grins.

Suddenly the outlaw comm channel explodes. The five ships that stayed back to guard the relay start calling out targets. The recruits drop the pretense and transition into combat updates. I hear Lyssa Vale, the brawler of the recruits, immediately mixing it up with the outlaw pilots.

Talkative on the comms, Vale is one of the most dedicated recruits I’ve seen. She is constantly pushing herself to a ridiculously high standard, putting hour after hour into sims, perpetually drilling herself and whoever she can loop into her training regimen. It seems to be paying off though; she’s ferocious in a fight.

The outlaws at the relay hold their ground as long as they can until virtual laser fire from the recruits finally take them down. With Vale providing cover, Weaver exits his ship and leads a pair of pilots into the relay to secure the hostage. They hope to finish their risky EVA before Rifke and two flights of outlaws race back.

The rest of the exercise is a single protracted brawl. The recruits do their best, but eventually the seasoned combat pilots of the 208th turn the tide. Weaver’s the last holdout, but he gets taken out just after he gets the hostage back to his ship.

Seven outlaws remain, the hostage is dead and the entire recruit squadron has been eliminated.

Two hours later, the recruits have gathered in Aino’s classroom for their debriefing. The room’s drenched in silence. Lyssa Vale is still wired from the op. Her leg bounces up and down as she glares ahead into space. Weaver aimlessly flips through his mobi. Even Chalke looks disappointed until he finally settles back in his seat and breaks the silence.

“Well, we almost had them.”

“Almost isn’t good enough,” Vale mutters.

“C’mon, Vale, you took out what, six? Seven?” Chalke seems intent on raising the spirits in the room.

The door suddenly opens and Aino strides into the room. He cuts a path to the front, powers up the system and loads all the captures of the exercise. He’s got everything: individual pilot cams, hologlobe recordings, comm chatter. For the next four hours, he walks them through the wargame, step by step. He grills them on each decision, why they made the choices they made, and what they would change in retrospect. There was no chastisements. No judgment on the actions of his recruits. It was purely objective analysis.

The recruits, however, seem locked in the loss.

Aino suddenly stops. He looks over the glum faces of the recruits in the room and shakes his head.

“You all need to grow the [redacted] up,” he mutters, tossing his pointer onto the desk.

That gets everyone’s attention. Aino draws out the pause and sits on the corner of his desk.

“Let me tell you all something. This job? The missions that you’ll fly? Any one of them can be a one-way ticket. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most routine patrol in the world, there’s always a chance that something could go wrong and one of you won’t come home. Now, I know you’re all sitting there, pissed off that you didn’t succeed. Let me let you in on a little secret: you weren’t supposed to. We did everything we could to stack the odds against you. Wilkes, remember your missile pod jam? I did that. Teague, your weapon overheating wasn’t an accident.”

The recruits exchange confused glances.

“You all saw failure, but I’ll tell you what I saw. I saw a squadron, working together, executing orders with precision and excellence. Chalke, you broke an engagement with an easy kill to drop flares and protect Kelso. Vale, you’d pick fights with pilots to get them away from teammates that were in trouble. Hell, feeding us the wrong position over your comms was genius. I thought we were gonna lose the op because of that.”

The recruits chuckle. Weaver gets some pats on the back. Aino smiles at them before he continues. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile at his recruits.

“You all did good. Yeah, you didn’t succeed. You lost people. But that’s the real lesson here. As a Navy pilot, you’re gonna be in these circumstances a lot. What we’re trying to do is condition you to act rationally in impossible situations. That doesn’t mean you’re always gonna make the right call. The real trick though, you gotta learn how to keep going. I know a lot of pilots, some of the finest pilots I ever flew with, who would rather be the one who gets punched out then have to go on without one of their squadron. You gotta be smarter than that. You gotta do your best. You got to look out not only the people beside you, but also for the civilians you’re protecting. Sometimes it’ll work out. Sometimes it won’t. Either way, you gotta pull yourself together and hit the next mission with a clear head. Now, I wish I could tell you how to do that, but you gotta figure that out for yourself.”

Aino studies the faces of the recruits.

“I’ve trained a lot of pilots, but I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen a class help each other as much as you do. I hope some of you get assigned together, but if you don’t, I hope you take that attitude to wherever you land because you all have something special.”

The room is silent for several moments. Someone gently knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Rifke pokes his head in.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s all right, commander,” Aino says as he stands and grabs his pointer. “What can we do for you?”

“Well, sir,” Rifke opens the door and steps inside. Some of the other pilots from the 208th are outside. “We were wondering when you were done debriefing these Rorys, if we could treat them to some drinks. Vanduul don’t fight as hard as they did.”

Aino looks at his class. He gives a quick motion with his head for them to go. All the recruits slowly file out of the class to the cheers of the combat pilots outside.

Weaver lingers by the door, then turns back to Aino.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

Weaver smiles and leaves.

I wait as the door slowly clicks shut. Aino starts to quietly collect his things. I feel I have to say something.

“That was a nice speech, sir.”

“Was it?” Aino finishes packing up, then looks at me. “What I said should have terrified them. The other DOs like to say the Rubicon is the first moment they land on Kilian, but if you ask me, it never stops. Doing this job every day will challenge you to your core. The Navy has been my single greatest pride and has broken me in ways that even I can’t see.” Aino pauses. “But they’ll see. Everybody does.”

* * * * * * * * *

The class of 2947 graduation ceremony is held in the late summer on Macarthur and features over two thousand graduates in a variety of capacities. The flight academy alone is responsible for over two hundred. Aino surprised me and arranged for me to sit with the rest of the Divisional Officers for the ceremony.

I can see Arley Finn and Yen Hardigan, the two DOs from that first day on the tarmac that introduced me to the intense journey that Naval recruits faced. As I watch the proceedings commence, I can’t help but reflect on the variety of people I’d met on this incredible journey. All committed to the core tenets of the Navy and protect people like me.

The entire graduating class stands and repeats the same Oath that has been uttered by every Navy member for centuries:

Hear and witness that I do solemnly pledge, mind and body, that I will serve and protect the United Empire of Earth against all who would seek to harm it and its people.

That I will faithfully discharge the duties asked of me, and when called upon, I will defend the Empire with my life.

That I will be the sword and the shield. That I will not falter nor fail, but fight and win.

That I swear to do all in my power to act as a guardian of freedom and justice, as a champion of honor and valor, and as a true and proud member of the UEE Navy.

I finally spot Weaver, Chalke, Vale and the rest of my friends all clustered in the crowd, relishing each word of the Oath. And when they finish, their journey (and mine, I suppose) is over.

They are official members of the UEE Navy.

I talk briefly with Callum Weaver after graduation, just a brief conversation while he waits to receive his first posting, but I ask him about that first day on the freezing tarmac of Kilian. When confronted by DO Hardigan, Callum said that he was joining to “not feel helpless.”

“So,” I ask. “Do you still feel that way?”

This scrawny kid from Plantock River, only a couple hours from my house here on Aremis, who survived the horrors of the Vanduul attack, thinks about it for a few moments.

“I don’t think that feeling ever goes away … but now I know I’m not alone.”

#RSI Comm-Link RobertsSpaceInd #StarCitizen #Star Citizen #Squadron 42 #Squadron42

[inexcon]

RSI Comm-Link: AREMIS POST: DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

DAY 627: THE JOURNEY ENDS

2947.12.12 SET

by Sean Nazawa

The final part in a series following a class of recruits moving through the Navy’s training system.

A business executive has been abducted while in transit from a trade conference in the Xi’an Empire. Advocacy investigators were able to identify and track the kidnappers back to an abandoned comm relay. Intel suggested that they had hollowed out the interior, pressurized sections and transformed it into a small hideout. From a strategic perspective, the hideout was a nightmare: complete visibility against any approach, homemade proximity mines, and multiple bulkheads inside that could quickly be triggered to lock down and trap agents. The Advocacy has turned to the Navy for assistance in rescuing the hostage. A flight of Avengers were deployed to resolve the situation. They were currently keeping a wide berth of the relay, their trajectory insinuating that they were simply passing by.

A harrowing circumstance, for certain, as this type of scenario could easily prove deadly for everyone involved.

Thankfully, it’s not real.

This staged event is the final test that this group of Naval recruits will face before graduation. Although they don’t know this, their performance in this exercise will be reviewed by the Navy and even the Marines to determine where these recruits will be assigned. Intended to be as close to a real world operation as possible, the military have spared no expense in orchestrating the illusion.

The ‘outlaws’ are members of the Navy’s 208th Squadron, recently redeployed from active service on the Vanduul front, and many of them are enjoying this bit of entertainment. Bravo Flight leader Commander Harold Rifke spent the days before the exercise coming up with extensive backstories for the other pilots and capturing fake ransom demand vids that he’s been sending sporadically to Divisional Officer Edward Aino, the conductor of this simulated chaos, to forward on to the recruits.

I’m standing with Aino onboard a C&C ship, overseeing the entire wargame play out. Analysts and comms officers coordinate both sides of the engagement. The outlaw chatter is considerably more colorful; the 208th are really getting into their roles.

I watch the recruits’ ships disappear from the hologlobe. Under acting squadron leader Toulo Chalke’s orders, they’re breaking towards the comm relay. Aino listens intently as they relay their positions to each other. He shakes his head and takes a sip of sujin tea.

“Tell Rifke to hack their comms,” he yells over to the comms officer coordinating the outlaw channel, then glances at me. “They shouldn’t give away their positions.”

Over the course of the exercise Aino will continue to throw what he calls ‘surgical handicaps’ against the recruits. He wants them off-balance, to be the underdog.

I pick out the specific recruits among their brief clipped exchanges:

Callum Weaver is confidently adjusting the approach vectors of his flightmates. This scrawny kid from Aremis has really come into his own since beginning flight training and now acts as the number two for Chalke.

The acting squadron leader is a bit of a celebrity around the Forges. Even though his father is Beo Chalke, legendary sataball player for Jata SC, and his mother is Valina Razari, award-winning star of Tears of Time and Last Stand of Lidenvald (to name a few), to the recruits he’s just ‘Paladin.’ The nickname born from an incident that occurred three months ago where Chalke jumped in to help several recruits who were being bullied in the commissary.

“Sir, Rifke’s moved two flights to their position. He says they aren’t there.”

Aino grins.

Suddenly the outlaw comm channel explodes. The five ships that stayed back to guard the relay start calling out targets. The recruits drop the pretense and transition into combat updates. I hear Lyssa Vale, the brawler of the recruits, immediately mixing it up with the outlaw pilots.

Talkative on the comms, Vale is one of the most dedicated recruits I’ve seen. She is constantly pushing herself to a ridiculously high standard, putting hour after hour into sims, perpetually drilling herself and whoever she can loop into her training regimen. It seems to be paying off though; she’s ferocious in a fight.

The outlaws at the relay hold their ground as long as they can until virtual laser fire from the recruits finally take them down. With Vale providing cover, Weaver exits his ship and leads a pair of pilots into the relay to secure the hostage. They hope to finish their risky EVA before Rifke and two flights of outlaws race back.

The rest of the exercise is a single protracted brawl. The recruits do their best, but eventually the seasoned combat pilots of the 208th turn the tide. Weaver’s the last holdout, but he gets taken out just after he gets the hostage back to his ship.

Seven outlaws remain, the hostage is dead and the entire recruit squadron has been eliminated.

Two hours later, the recruits have gathered in Aino’s classroom for their debriefing. The room’s drenched in silence. Lyssa Vale is still wired from the op. Her leg bounces up and down as she glares ahead into space. Weaver aimlessly flips through his mobi. Even Chalke looks disappointed until he finally settles back in his seat and breaks the silence.

“Well, we almost had them.”

“Almost isn’t good enough,” Vale mutters.

“C’mon, Vale, you took out what, six? Seven?” Chalke seems intent on raising the spirits in the room.

The door suddenly opens and Aino strides into the room. He cuts a path to the front, powers up the system and loads all the captures of the exercise. He’s got everything: individual pilot cams, hologlobe recordings, comm chatter. For the next four hours, he walks them through the wargame, step by step. He grills them on each decision, why they made the choices they made, and what they would change in retrospect. There was no chastisements. No judgment on the actions of his recruits. It was purely objective analysis.

The recruits, however, seem locked in the loss.

Aino suddenly stops. He looks over the glum faces of the recruits in the room and shakes his head.

“You all need to grow the [redacted] up,” he mutters, tossing his pointer onto the desk.

That gets everyone’s attention. Aino draws out the pause and sits on the corner of his desk.

“Let me tell you all something. This job? The missions that you’ll fly? Any one of them can be a one-way ticket. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most routine patrol in the world, there’s always a chance that something could go wrong and one of you won’t come home. Now, I know you’re all sitting there, pissed off that you didn’t succeed. Let me let you in on a little secret: you weren’t supposed to. We did everything we could to stack the odds against you. Wilkes, remember your missile pod jam? I did that. Teague, your weapon overheating wasn’t an accident.”

The recruits exchange confused glances.

“You all saw failure, but I’ll tell you what I saw. I saw a squadron, working together, executing orders with precision and excellence. Chalke, you broke an engagement with an easy kill to drop flares and protect Kelso. Vale, you’d pick fights with pilots to get them away from teammates that were in trouble. Hell, feeding us the wrong position over your comms was genius. I thought we were gonna lose the op because of that.”

The recruits chuckle. Weaver gets some pats on the back. Aino smiles at them before he continues. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile at his recruits.

“You all did good. Yeah, you didn’t succeed. You lost people. But that’s the real lesson here. As a Navy pilot, you’re gonna be in these circumstances a lot. What we’re trying to do is condition you to act rationally in impossible situations. That doesn’t mean you’re always gonna make the right call. The real trick though, you gotta learn how to keep going. I know a lot of pilots, some of the finest pilots I ever flew with, who would rather be the one who gets punched out then have to go on without one of their squadron. You gotta be smarter than that. You gotta do your best. You got to look out not only the people beside you, but also for the civilians you’re protecting. Sometimes it’ll work out. Sometimes it won’t. Either way, you gotta pull yourself together and hit the next mission with a clear head. Now, I wish I could tell you how to do that, but you gotta figure that out for yourself.”

Aino studies the faces of the recruits.

“I’ve trained a lot of pilots, but I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen a class help each other as much as you do. I hope some of you get assigned together, but if you don’t, I hope you take that attitude to wherever you land because you all have something special.”

The room is silent for several moments. Someone gently knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Rifke pokes his head in.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s all right, commander,” Aino says as he stands and grabs his pointer. “What can we do for you?”

“Well, sir,” Rifke opens the door and steps inside. Some of the other pilots from the 208th are outside. “We were wondering when you were done debriefing these Rorys, if we could treat them to some drinks. Vanduul don’t fight as hard as they did.”

Aino looks at his class. He gives a quick motion with his head for them to go. All the recruits slowly file out of the class to the cheers of the combat pilots outside.

Weaver lingers by the door, then turns back to Aino.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

Weaver smiles and leaves.

I wait as the door slowly clicks shut. Aino starts to quietly collect his things. I feel I have to say something.

“That was a nice speech, sir.”

“Was it?” Aino finishes packing up, then looks at me. “What I said should have terrified them. The other DOs like to say the Rubicon is the first moment they land on Kilian, but if you ask me, it never stops. Doing this job every day will challenge you to your core. The Navy has been my single greatest pride and has broken me in ways that even I can’t see.” Aino pauses. “But they’ll see. Everybody does.”

* * * * * * * * *

The class of 2947 graduation ceremony is held in the late summer on Macarthur and features over two thousand graduates in a variety of capacities. The flight academy alone is responsible for over two hundred. Aino surprised me and arranged for me to sit with the rest of the Divisional Officers for the ceremony.

I can see Arley Finn and Yen Hardigan, the two DOs from that first day on the tarmac that introduced me to the intense journey that Naval recruits faced. As I watch the proceedings commence, I can’t help but reflect on the variety of people I’d met on this incredible journey. All committed to the core tenets of the Navy and protect people like me.

The entire graduating class stands and repeats the same Oath that has been uttered by every Navy member for centuries:

Hear and witness that I do solemnly pledge, mind and body, that I will serve and protect the United Empire of Earth against all who would seek to harm it and its people.

That I will faithfully discharge the duties asked of me, and when called upon, I will defend the Empire with my life.

That I will be the sword and the shield. That I will not falter nor fail, but fight and win.

That I swear to do all in my power to act as a guardian of freedom and justice, as a champion of honor and valor, and as a true and proud member of the UEE Navy.

I finally spot Weaver, Chalke, Vale and the rest of my friends all clustered in the crowd, relishing each word of the Oath. And when they finish, their journey (and mine, I suppose) is over.

They are official members of the UEE Navy.

I talk briefly with Callum Weaver after graduation, just a brief conversation while he waits to receive his first posting, but I ask him about that first day on the freezing tarmac of Kilian. When confronted by DO Hardigan, Callum said that he was joining to “not feel helpless.”

“So,” I ask. “Do you still feel that way?”

This scrawny kid from Plantock River, only a couple hours from my house here on Aremis, who survived the horrors of the Vanduul attack, thinks about it for a few moments.

“I don’t think that feeling ever goes away … but now I know I’m not alone.”

http://bit.ly/2APynlk

#RSI.CommLink.Repost

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Little Witch Academia

Finally, a Netflix Original I care about![1]

I’d been waiting for this dub since the first OVA earned itself on Article on io9. An adorable, all-ages anime about witches going to school? Count me in.

Though I let the Netflix release of the OVAs sit on my list for an embarrassingly long time, I made sure to watch them right before starting on the series proper.

So let’s step into yet another world of magic and wonder![2]

The first of the two OVAs was… cute. A lot of world building by showing, good general aesthetic for the monsters and magical artifacts, hint of mystery and potential story, and Akko and friends are endearing. It’s very clearly a proof of concept, but the first Little Witch Academia has it’s charm, and certainly deserves the franchise it started.

The second OVA, The Enchanted Parade, is my favorite of the Little Witch Academia stories. It opens with Akko and friends messing up in class, then landing in trouble, with dialogue establishing quickly that, 1. Akko and her friends are troublemakers, and 2. Akko carries the sort of innocence that leads to her listing her past infractions. Their punishment? Organize a parade for the local festival!

At first thought, that seems oddly light, however, the parade is traditionally a time for the townsfolk to mock and humilate witches, so being ordered to participate is not great.

Fortunately, our three heroines shall not be alone, as we’re introduced to the B-Team to our trio: Amanda, a burglarizing witch with flashy broom skills; Constanze, a technomancer (and Luna Nova dislikes technology); and Jasminka, who was eating in class.

I like Amanda and Constanze a lot, and they carried over the best to the series.

The Enchanted Parade implied a format that I would’ve liked to see a lot more: Akko and friends letting curiosity get the better of them, landing them in trouble with their strict Headmistress while Ursula tries her best to smooth things over, before hard work and inspiration solves an even bigger problem to the amazement of all. It’s a format that I wouldn’t have mind seeing run longer in the series proper, but, unfortunately, the Main Arc had to get involved.

Also, Ursula gets to use her skills as a performer to great effect during the titular parade, something I would’ve like to have seen more of. She is blatantly Shining Chariot, after all (even if the name makes her sound like a dang pony).

So, these two OVAs were so beloved, that a series was commissioned! Yay! But… I do have a few nitpicks.

Besides the slight change in tone from the more ‘world of wonder’ of the OVAs to the more casual magic of the series, there’s also been few character changes. My largest complaint being changes to two characters that are oddly opposed when compared: Sucy and Diana.

In the OVAs, Diana was prideful. She was talented and of high birth, and would actually rub it in Akko’s face. She had a mean streak, was kind of a bully, and it made sense she kept her two flunkies at heel to build her ego. It was a nice contrast to Akko’s own arrogance, since Akko was just hot-headed and ambitious, eyes cast higher than her current skill, while Diana was innately talented and knew it. Not to an irredeemable extent, but it was nice to see some immaturity and mutual rivalry between the two. In the show, Diana’s just… nice. She’s toned down and more mature, and that ends up making her boring. The rivalry seems entirely in Akko’s head, since Diana mostly views the girl as slightly annoying, but little else. I just would’ve seen more of her and Akko butting heads, instead of just… generic talented girl trying to solve the main conflict while Akko stumbles about.

On the other hand, Sucy’s now more actively malicious. In the OVAs, Sucy enjoyed potioncraft and poisons and used Akko as a guinea pig, but the OVAs portrayed it more as a gentle prank done to her friends, and that Sucy never meant any harm. In the series, Sucy has no care for safety, no regard for her friends, and attends Luna Nova by accident. She doesn’t feel like she’s Akko’s friend, and has few redeeming qualities in a show about cute witches doing their best. Sucy isn’t doing her best, she’s just a jerk who happens to share a room with Akko and Lotte. I actively dislike this version of Sucy.

Aside from those two, Diana’s two boring worshippers, and the villain of the second act, I liked the cast.

Akko’s an adorable protagonist that you root for throughout her whole journey; Lotte’s a cute nerd girl (even if she likes the Twilight stand-in series… that’s 365 volumes long…); and the B-Team’s unchanged from their debut OVA, and I love Amanda[3] and Constanze dearly, while Jasminka just suffers from never getting her own focus episode.

The teaching staff is also a good mix of overly uptight to overly lax, and I wish we got to see more of them outside of Ursula and Croix.

As for the plot, when it was a slice of life episode about Akko getting into trouble or exploring the world, I liked it. When the episode focused on the decline of magic and Luna Nova’s difficulties, I was less thrilled. Akko’s dreams and ambitious were more infectious than the adults fretting over the future of their job field.

So the first 13 episodes[4] were stronger in my opinion, when the ‘Magic versus Tech’ elements were more subtle. It’s a trope I’ve grown less fond of over the years. Placing the two in opposition seems overly restrictive, and I’d enjoy having Magic tied into modern technology, which we see in the second half with Croix, but she’s the main antagonist, so it’s still being touted as a bad thing.

Even then, Constanze is sitting right there, using magic and technology without being evil, so even that message is fractured.

I’ve heard a theory that the series is a metaphor for traditional animation versus computer animation, and how the old ways are being crowded out by technology. It’s an interesting take, but the show seems more focused on emotion and following your dreams than about the landscape of the animation industry. But I also tend to be resistant to over analysis and such English Class nonsense. Just let it be a story.

There’s also a running thread about Ursula hiding her true identity from Akko, who would so love to meet Shiny Chariot.[5] And… well, you know me and unnecessary secrets. To the show’s credit, they do give a plausible explanation for why Ursula’s hiding her past, and maintaining the secret doesn’t cause anyone much pain outside of inconveniencing Ursula herself, as she could’ve used her true identity to swing Akko against Croix earlier, but the secret’s harmless.

Still a stupid secret, but Ursula’s ashamed of the damage she caused by accident while on tour, so I’ll give it a side-eyed pass.

So the first 13 episodes spend time world building, character building, and culminates in Akko and her friends getting the shortest straw for an annual festival, and Akko’s resolve and practice turning being human sacrifices (they get better) into a grand event that ends with no one ever having to do the job ever again. It’s a big moment, even if the win Akko rightfully deserved got passed to Diana.

Then Croix does an ominous, last fifteen seconds thing, and…

Croix was a boring villain, made worse by the fact she came in when the show tightened its belt and decided to commit to the magic’s fading plotline. Also, Croix spends most of her time sitting in her lab, smirking nefariously, and just… hanging around? Yes, we see her dark cubes and evil roombas flying around causing problems, but Croix herself is so passive it’s hard to care.

Though evil roombas is a hilarious parallel to brooms.

Admittedly, my opinions of the last 12 episodes may be unfairly colored by what I had wanted out of the show, as opposed to what the show was providing. And it wasn’t a terrible plot, I just… preferred the episodes about Akko than the mystery about Croix and Chariot’s relationship.

And the ‘find the Words’ half of that main narrative fit with what I enjoyed. Akko always found the words when she was just having adventures with her friends. Akko joining the side of the striking monster servants was both in character and very amusing, especially since the teaching staff’s reaction amounted to ‘Akko joined them? Okay, sure, that tracks.’ Then Akko visits Lotte’s family, where she has to first help gather ingredients to cure a curse on the town, then ends up having to complete the project herself, and it’s all very well written lesson on patience and compassion.

Which is then followed by two episodes co-starring Amanda and Constanze! Croix’s influence do cause boss battles for them, and Amanda’s episode did split its focus with Andrew’s character development, but still, Akko becoming better friends with the B-Team is great.

And Constanze’s focus episode was just perfect. Akko nosing in where she’s not invited, gets rebuffed several times, but her tenacity and ability to relate to the school service staff wins over Constanze, and they build the ship from Enchanted Parade.

Which Constnze then retrofits into a transforming mech (at Akko’s suggestion), because it’s Studio Trigger, and they want to remind you they made Gurren Lagaan!

I kid. The entire sequence was fun, silly fun; Constanze, despite her apparent mutism, is given plenty of stoic personality; the Stanbots’ antagonism towards Akko is funny; and the show gives as a positive example of Technology and Magic working together.

Which undermines the whole ‘Mixing the two is bad’ thing Croix’s supposed to have going, but even the devices she introduces helps expand the magical capabilities of Luna Nova, so the show’s all over the place with the message.

So, Amanda and Constanze were given focal episodes, so obviously the third one must be about Diana!

Poor Jasminka. All she gets is a bag of chips. She’s content with the bag of chips, of course, but still, complete the trilogy, show!

Anyways, Diana tries to leave Luna Nova to take over as the head of her family, which Akko doesn’t want to allow, and tracks the girl down to her family estate, where Diana’s evil Aunt and her daughters are selling off family heirlooms and just generally being jerks. Lot of high class drama.

Also, we see Diana’s got the last Shining Chariot Trading Card Akko needs, finally establishing Diana’s own fandom of Chariot first hinted at by her Cameo during the opening sequence of the show.

These are elements I feel would be stronger if Diana was a little more of a jerk. Akko’s attempts to get her to return to school would’ve shown a lot more of Akko’s general compassion had Diana not been generically aloof and a little more antagonistic. The two would’ve had their differences, but gosh darnit, Akko needs Diana to measure herself against!

Also, the Cavendishs are descended from one of the Nine Olde Witches, and taking over as head of the family involves a ceremony initiated by a Venusian eclipse. Which begs the question:

Are the Nine Olde Witches the Sailor Scouts?

And does that make Rita Repulsa Sailor Moon?[6]

Such intriguing lore.

The final five episodes are just all Croix plot. She’s going to use technology and cause an international incident to get the Grand Triskelion, and that’s bad.

Well, causing soccer riots is pretty wicked, but my understanding is such things are normal in Europe, so shrug.

It’s all… fine, I guess. We get a fuller explanation for why Chariot disappeared, as she was ashamed of accidentally stealing magic potential from her audience (hence Akko’s inability to fly), but Croix didn’t tell her that’s what the power-up technique she created did, so Chariot is kind of absolved, even though she maybe should’ve double checked Croix’s research.

So, turns out Ursula was keeping her secrets because she was ashamed of her actions, and it caused little damage, so… I give it a begrudging pass.

Although, had Ursula been a little more open earlier, Diana could’ve stepped forward after Akko has a meltdown over it and been all ‘Uh, I saw that very same show, and my magic’s fine’, and everyone would’ve felt better about the whole thing, and Akko could go back to trying hard.

The finale was exactly what it should’ve been: Croix’s designs backfire on her, Ursula’s identity as Chariot is out in the open, and Akko’s general optimism inspires everyone to go beat up an evil magic missile. The important characters do their part, with Croix and Constanze collaborating on making a super broom designed as a multistage rocket, a team up I wanted since Croix was introduced. Then Chariot helps by… giving the seven girls fancier duds? That’s not really participating, Ursula.

So the broom fires off, everyone gives their inspirational efforts, using their talents to help as they fall away, leaving Akko and Diana to do the final battle.

Fueled by the power of the world’s dreams, hope, and belief in the Little Witches trying to save the day. Saccharine and very MLP-esque, but we do have a character named Shining Chariot, so what can you do?

Okay, I joked about Ursula not really helping, but Croix does nudge her into what she should’ve done during the Mecha vs. Giant bird fight: act as announcer and narrator ala Enchanted Parade.

Chariot’s showmanship finally, after 25 episodes, returns from the best OVA! She tells the world the general situation, and tells them to believe.

And it’s great, and Akko and Diana fire a magic arrow into a missile and blow it up.

Then the Shiny Rod vanishes. Because reasons.

For the final scene, Akko finally gets a broom to float. Yay!

It was a satisfying finale. And a satisfying series. I might not have enjoyed aspects of the main plot, but that’s more an issue of personal taste than actual poor writing. I’m glad to have seen it and, if I’m being honest, I hope Netflix doesn’t pressure the staff into making more episodes. Anime has usually been good about telling a complete story in a timely manner[7] and letting it speak for itself, but Netflix is an American company, where we tend to stretch series out as long as it gets good ratings. I wouldn’t object, however, to more OVAs. And if they do a sequel series with a new plot, that might be acceptable. I’m also totally getting that game when it comes out, and likely will throw it on the Stream pile.

Though, there is still one final mystery:

How did Salem Saberhagen get admitted to a girl’s magic school? What trickery did that cat play?

Thanks for reading my review. Look at my blog for other works and projects, send me questions and messages, consider my Patreon.

And, most importantly, believe in the Magic that believes in the Magic in you.[8]

Kataal kataal.

[1] Well, okay, A Series of Unfortunate Events was also good, but I didn’t do a review of that, did I? [2] Because there’s such a shortage of them… [3] Even though people keep saying she’s Ryuko from Kill la Kill. I still can’t get my hands on that series, so the comparison’s lost on me. [4] Because Netflix split the series into two batches, so there was a break between them. [5] It wouldn’t be such a horrible name if everyone had ridiculous names. But, no, everyone’s got freaking normal names. Except Chariot. [6] Pay attention to the hats behind the headmistress’s desk. Rita’s is present. [7] Shonen fighty-man series aside. [8] Really need to get through Gurren Lagaan one of these days…

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